Broken
by MissLavery
Summary: Tenten's back from a brutal mission... actually not really; and it is up to Neji to bring her back.
1. Chapter 1

'**Broken' is my first story, and chapter 1 here has been tweaked a bit since it was first published. Enjoy!**

**Rated T for violence**

**Disclaimer: Naruto Belongs to Masashi Kishimoto**

**Chapter 1**

It had happened, in the middle of Konoha streets, in broad daylight.

19 year old Hyuuga Neji, captain of his ANBU cell, was walking with one of his team members, Uzumaki Naruto. They had been arguing about nothing in particular, as always. Neji weaving himself easily against the current of people, dodging men, women, children; stall keepers and their customers, his tunic rippling against the wind and his body; while Naruto followed, slightly lagging behind and with less grace. The sun was about to set, casting a warm, orange glow onto the streets and flushing the people with a tint of color.

That day, they had been arguing about ramen. Naruto claimed he was starving, but Neji refused to stop. They had just returned from a three week mission, and the only thing he had in mind was to go home, shower and sleep.

Until, that is, when they ran into them.

Naruto had walked into a large figure, knocking him backwards.

"What the…" he said. Neji stopped too. After all, Naruto did not just walk into people. He was an ANBU, for goodness sake. A closer examination revealed that the 'figure' was, in fact, two people. The sight was very strange indeed.

It was a girl, with a man on her back. She was slender and tall, dressed in typical jounin armory as well as the green flak jacket. She wore a large straw paddy hat, which shadowed her face and hair. The body she carried on her back wore the same outfit, apart from the hat. Upon stumbling into Naruto, the girl swayed slightly, before she promptly dropped the body onto the floor. The body was limp, and lay sickly motionless on the floor. He was dead.

People walking past stopped and stared in morbid fascination. Some gasped, some shuffled quickly away from the unholy scene.

Naruto knelt down to examine the body. It had scratches and bruises all over its limbs and face. The right arm was gone, and blood still dripped from the torn sleeve onto the ground, glinting in the setting sunlight. An opening in the shirt revealed a long, deep gash stretching from the abdomen to the chest. The injury was probably the reason of the death.

Naruto looked in awe from the body to the girl who had fallen to her knees. She made no movement whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Neji stared at the corpse, and recognized it as one of Tenten's teammates. Fear and dread rushed through his body in an instant.

"Tenten?" He croaked? The girl remained still and silent.

"Tenten!?" Naruto exclaimed. He squatted down to come face to face with the kunoichi, but she never looked up.

"T… Tenten? What's wrong?" He lifted her hat up a little so he could see her face. Naruto cursed under his breath.

The first thing he noticed was that she was covering her left eye with a hand. Blood was slowly seeping out through the cracks of her fingers. Her right arm had a deep slash running down its length. The dark cloth near her abdomen was reflecting light, which meant she was bleeding heavily there as well. That added with cuts and bruises all over her body. Her face was dangerously pale; consciousness far away. Tears were running down her face, but she wasn't crying. She was just sitting down, wide-eyed, tearing.

Naruto noticed her clutching something tightly in her hand.

"What's this?" He asked, trying to pry her fingers open. She did not budge.

"Don't just stand there, you moron!" Naruto turned to Neji.

Neji had also noticed Tenten's deadly grip. He had activated his Byakugan, and what he saw made him gulp. That could not be…

Suddenly, Tenten coughed. She choked, and then coughed again, splattering blood all over the floor. The crowd gasped.

"Hey! Tenten, are you alright?" Naruto could feel her consciousness drifting as she started to sway, and her visible eyelid began to droop.

"Tenten, don't sleep, stay with me, STAY WITH ME, GODAMMIT!" She fell into Naruto's chest. In one fluid motion, Neji was at Tenten's side. Her grip around the object had loosened, and he grabbed it, wrapping it delicately into a handkerchief. He hid it from view.

"What was that?" Naruto asked.

"We have to take her to the hospital. You take the corpse." And with that, Neji had disappeared, landing himself from one roof to another, Tenten in his arms.

Tenten's head lolled around, and he tried not to jerk around as much. His heart pounded against his chest, from the adrenalin and the physical activity.

"Don't Tenten… please be OK." He thought to himself. He was being too slow. He needed to be faster. He pushed his legs to move more quickly; jump further, until the hospital came into view.

He arrived at the hospital, rushing in through the glass doors, out of breath and gasping for air. He had pushed his limit to get here.

"Oh my… Neji, _what happened?_" Sakura had suddenly appeared at his side, horrified by what he held in his arms. Naruto burst in a few seconds later, and Neji watched as Sakura face, if possible, turned even paler.

"She just got back from a mission." Neji managed to pant. Sakura nodded, and immediately sprung into action.

"Bring me a stretcher!" She yelled at a nearby medic nin as she began observing Tenten's wounds. "I think we'll need a surgery room for this. You there, go …Yes Neji?"

Sakura stopped abruptly as she felt Neji place a hand on her shoulder. Hyuga Neji never touched unless it was extremely necessary.

"I need to… tell you something." He said.

Now was an extremely inappropriate time to blush, but Sakura could not control that when a gorgeous clan prodigy was locking your gaze so intently. He grabbed her hand and placed something into it. One look was all it took for the previous blush to drain itself from her face, if not, tenfold.

"Oh… my…" She stuttered. It had been the 'thing' Neji had wrapped into his handkerchief. Taking a deep breath, she stopped a medic nin rushing by,

"Go… go get me the Hokage. _Now_." She ordered. The medic nin rushed off in obedience, and Sakura turned back to her patient.

Naruto was starting to get nervous as two medic nins came over and took the corpse away from him. He had seen Neji and Sakura mumbling something, and he had given her that _thing_. What was it? Sakura's face had turned pale, and Naruto knew Sakura had seen plenty of sick things in her life.

Tenten was pushed into the operation room, and Neji plopped himself onto a chair.

"Um…Neji, what did you just give Saku…"

"I cannot believe this! Ripped right out? Sick bastards…" Tsunade sama was walking in long strides along the hospital, two medic nins trying to catch up with her. She looked grimly at Neji and Naruto before entering into the surgery room herself.

"W… What's going on?" Naruto asked, sick of being in the dark. He turned to Neji, and gulped. Neji was frowning…hard. The emotionless, ice-cube, apathetic Hyuga Neji was showing emotion. Not a good sign. He gave up, deciding he'd rather not know, and turned quietly back in his seat.

The next moments came as a blur for both of them. Friends rushed in, one after another, after hearing the horrible news. Word had spread fast, considering the incident had happened in the middle of one of the most crowded streets of Konoha.

The tension in the air was thick, increasing as more and more people came. Lee and Gai were no longer bouncing around, flashing their teeth; only waiting silently. Medic nins rushed in and out, looking stressed and sweating.

It had seemed like forever, but finally, the lights of the operation flicked off. Tsunade and Sakura stepped out, with a few medic nin.

They held their breaths.

**End of Chapter 1**

**This is it, Chapter 1! Did you like it? Please review!!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"She won't die." Tsunade said to the room. The whole room's tension was released all at once. Tears of worry and sadness began to turn into those of happiness. Tsunade let everyone savor the good news for a moment.

"But…" she continued, raising her voice so she could be heard above the relieved talking. The whole room turned quiet in an instant.

"Her eye was totally removed from its socket."

The sound of a machine humming in the distance could be heard.

"WHAT!" Naruto shouted a few minutes later. Hinata, who had been crying in Naruto's chest, flinched. Tsunade scowled.

"Was that what you gave Sakura? You had her eyeball!" Naruto grabbed Neji around the shoulders and shook.

Normally, Neji would not have tolerated this. But this… this felt surreal. He had never thought of Tenten being hurt. For him, she had always been the best kunoichi he knew. It just never occurred to him that… perhaps he was dreaming. Perhaps Naruto could wake him up. But that never happened, and Neji only nodded heavily.

Naruto stopped and gaped at him. He felt like throwing up. Hinata had burst into tears again.

"Is there anything we can do?" Gai asked, his voice hoarse.

"Well…" the fifth paused, and then cleared her throat. "Think of it this way. Her eyeball isn't "dead" yet, but it's not going to work if we just put it back in and leave it to heal, because it's too weak. We need a little part of a healthy, living eye to teach this eyeball of hers how to live again."

"So…" Kakashi urged.

"So, we need someone to donate half an eye to her."

Nobody made a sound

"I'll do it." Neji said without even thinking. He knew he was crazy, he didn't know why he even volunteered, but he just did.

There was another long silence.

"No." somebody finally said. Some people were shocked; it was Hinata. "Neji, f…father will not let it…" she started. "It's against the rules!"

"I'll be fine." She said calmly.

"B…but."

"She's right, Neji." Gai added. "I know you and Tenten are close, but your eyes are no ordinary ones. We don't know what will happen to Tenten if you just give it to her like that. You were born with it. But how do we know Tenten's body will be able to handle it?"

Neji clenched his fist. Was there really nothing he could do? He sat back down and ran both his hands through his long black hair. Sakura, who hadn't made a sound ever since stepping out of the operation room finally spoke up.

"Tsunade sensei…" She said. Everyone turned to look at her.

"I'm sure Tenten will be able to handle just half of a Byakugan. Look at Kakashi sensei and his Sharingan."

"Yosh." Kakashi seemed to agree.

Sakura paused to look at everyone's reaction. Tsunade was nodding slightly, and seemed to be deep in thought.

"And…" she continued. "All it takes is a bit of training and adjustments in fighting. I'm sure Neji will help. Won't you?"

Neji nodded slowly. He had no idea what he was promising to, but he silently thanked Sakura.

"Well then." Tsunade chirped, making the only happy sound in the room. "That's settled then. Naruto, Shikamaru, Lee, come to my office." She turned for the exit. "I'll be back in 10 minutes." She said to Sakura. She nodded, and led Neji to prepare for his operation.

****

Neji's eyes slowly opened. He looked around. Something was preventing his left eye from opening. He reached up and touched it, and felt a piece of cloth covering his eye. It all came flooding back.

"_Tenten." _He thought. In a swift motion, he sat up and looked around him. It was dark outside the window. How long had he slept? He saw a bunch of flowers on his bedside table, and wondered who they were from. Suddenly, he felt something stir around his leg. It was Hinata. She seemed to have fallen asleep at the end of his bed. She frowned in her sleep, and her eyes slowly opened. She gasped and sat upright when she saw her cousin's pearly eyes staring at her.

"I… I… you're awake." She mumbled.

"Yes." He replied. "How is Tenten? How long have I slept?" He asked.

"A… almost 5 hours now. And Tenten's fine, but Tsunade sama says she won't wake up for a while." She answered shyly. Neji sighed. He fell back onto the pillow.

"And who are these from?" He said peeking over at the flowers. Hinata looked at him for a while.

"Well, they're from Naruto…" She stammered. She was blushing. He knew it, even if he had one eye. "He came, before leaving for the search." Neji raised his eyebrow.

"Search?" He asked curiously.

"The search for Tenten's attackers, and her other teammate." She replied.

"Oh." He said. So that was why they had a meeting with the Hokage before the operation.

The both of them were silent for a while.

"You're still fond of him aren't you, that Uzumaki." Neji suddenly said.

'W… what?" She stammered. She was blushing a furious shade of red. Neji smirked at his cousin.

"I…I think I should leave now! I'll come visit you again tomorrow." She stood up quickly and left. He smiled.

"_Girls…"_ He thought. He closed his eyes and fell asleep in an instant.

Hyuuga Neji found himself awoken once again, by something near the end of his leg. It was dark, so he activated his eye, and found Sakura writing something on his papers.

"It's not going to heal if you're using it so often." She said, not looking at Neji. Neji was pretty surprised that she had found out he had awoken, and even more surprised she knew he had activated his Byakugan.

"How did you know?" He asked calmly.

"Your breathing sounded different." She replied with the same tone. Neji couldn't help but admire Sakura's skill. He sighed loudly and put his hand on his left eye.

"Do you miss it" She asked.

"What, my eye? No…" he replied awkwardly. She chuckled.

"Don't worry, its going to grow back, just give it some time." She assured.

"I said I wasn't worried. Even if this eye isn't going to grow back, I would still do this." He was starting to get impatient.

"Alright, alright," She raised both of her hands in surrender. She smiled sheepishly.

"What are you smiling at?" He growled.

"Why?" She ignored Neji's question.

"Why what?"

"Why would you still be willing to do this even if you knew your eye won't be back?" Neji didn't know weather Sakura was stupid, or weather she was just trying to tease him. He thought carefully.

"Because," he finally replied. "Those who see their companions in danger and pretend to be blind are rubbish. No, they're worse then rubbish."

Sakura nodded in agreement.

****

Neji was allowed to leave the hospital a week after the operation. Although his bandages were off, seeing with his left eye was still difficult. He wanted to continue with his missions, but the Tsunade refused to let him do so.

"Just let your eye heal for a little longer. You do want to be with Tenten when she wakes up, don't you?" She teased. He scowled.

"Fine," He replied, reaching for the cup of water in front of him, but instead, knocked it over. It was still hard to focus with his eyes.

"See what I mean?" She snorted

"I really don't see what's so funny." Neji snapped. The fifth narrowed her eyes at him.

"This isn't the way to talk to a Hokage." She shot back

"I apologize." He replied coolly.

Naruto had come back from his search the day after he left. They found the last member of Tenten's team alright, but it seemed that Tenten was the only one lucky enough to survive. There was no evidence, no clue even, to whom the attackers were. They gave up searching, and the fifth decided the only option left was to ask Tenten directly when she woke up. A funeral was held for the two teammates. Some people wanted to wait till Tenten had woken up.

"The least she could do is be able to attend their funeral," They said sympathetically. But Neji, agreed with the Hokage. Doing this was better for Tenten

Neji went to visit Tenten everyday. Although she still hadn't woken up yet, the color was coming back to her face. The machines attached to her body decreased day by day.

****

"Neji, Neji, are you awake yet?" Neji could hear Hinata's muffled voice through his bedroom door one morning. He slowly sat up.

"Yes" He replied.

"Oh good. Guess what, Tenten, she's awake!" Hinata exclaimed happily. Neji froze for a moment, then sprang out of his bed and sprinted to the door, opening it violently.

"What was that?" He asked hoarsely.

"I… I, Tenten, she's a… awake…" Hinata mumbled, taking a step back from her cousin. Neji closed the door and changed as fast as he could.

"But… Neji..." Hinata exclaimed as her cousin slammed the door in her face. She sighed, and walked away.

He opened his bedroom door again, and rushed out without thinking… the result was him bumping into someone.

"Argh!" He cried as he bounced back and almost lost his balance.

"Where would you be going in such a hurry?" The man he had bumped into said, Neji felt chills running up his spine. He looked up and saw Hiashi staring at him.

"_Stay calm, stay cool." _He told himself.

"I was just going to the hospital." He replied, nodding his head slightly at his uncle.

"Why?" Hiashi asked.

"Tenten" He wanted this to end as soon as possible.

"The girl you gave part of your eye to?" He asked. There was something about Hiashi's attitude that annoyed him.

"Yes." He replied, starting to get impatient. Hiashi seemed to have noticed.

"Stay at home and rest more. I'll talk about this later." He started to walk past Neji and left him standing there awkwardly, with his head bowed. He turned to glance at his uncle, then continued running towards the hospital.

When he got there, he rushed to Tenten's room. Some people had already gathered around her bed. He saw Tenten sitting up on her bed, looking around. He went over happily, not taking notice to the other people around him. Not realizing their troubled looks, not realizing their looks of fear, not realizing the way they looked at him.

"Tenten, you're awake!" He said, grabbing her hand. "How do you feel? Are you in pain?"

She stared at him for a long time.

Finally, she frowned, and pulled her hand away from his.

"Tenten…" Neji whispered.

"Who are you?" She asked.

**End of Chapter****2**

**R&R!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 **

_Tenten threw a stick into the flowing river in front of her. It landed in the water with a small "splash", barely audible in the noisy forest. The water in front of her gurgled as it ran past happily like children playing tag. The birds above her chirped at each other, warning everyone close by not to run into their space. An insect whizzed by her ear annoyingly. She wanted to hide from the sun, but no matter where she went, it would still find her, and even though she stood in the shadows of the trees, the sun would still manage to peek at patches of her skin through the branches. It was a beautiful day, as most people would say. But Tenten was annoyed, through and through. She picked up another stick, and threw it into the water with all her might. The ripples disturbed the shining reflection of the sun._

"_You don't look too happy." A voice behind a tree said._

"_Obviously." Tenten replied, staring at the river. Hyuuga Neji emerged from his hiding place, and stood behind her team-mate. Tenten noticed that now, she was finally completely shadowed from the sun._

"_I heard you failed the jounin test." He said. Tenten turned to glare at the man behind her._

"_Oh, thanks a whole lot for the reminder." She said dryly._

"_Why are you upset?" The Hyuuga asked. Tenten's face flushed in anger._

"_Oh, like what? You expect me to be dancing around now don't you? That would be so normal wouldn't it? Look Hyuuga, if you want to mock someone so much, go look for someone else. I haven't got time for this. It's already bad enough everyone I know has passed except for me, you know." She was close to tears. Neji went and sat beside her. The sun was shining on the kunoichi again, but she ignored it._

"_You haven't eaten all day, have you?" Neji asked, staring into the water. It was true; Tenten noticed her stomach growling at her right away. She blushed and turned her head away from the Hyuuga._

"_Here." Neji replied to the silence a little while later. He passed her a rice ball. _

"_Th... Thanks." Tenten stuttered, blushing harder. She ate it carefully and consciously. She felt particularly uneasy that Neji was staring at her eat. Neji noticed her uneasiness, and looked away._

"_Even if you can't cook Tenten, you could've just gone to a ramen shop or something." Neji said dully. Tenten almost choked on her rice._

"_Who said I couldn't cook? I was just... just... never mind." She looked back at her rice ball. After a moment, she spoke again._

"_Going to a ramen shop would just mean having to see everyone, but I don't want to see anyone." She said matter-of-factly._

"_Why not?" He asked._

"_Oh, as if it's not humiliating enough I haven't passed the test. I can't bare their looks." She said, throwing another stick at the river._

"_No one is laughing at you Tenten. They've been wondering where you've been all day." Neji said picking up a flower and starting to pluck its petals._

"_You'll never understand!" She exclaimed._

"_You're different! You're a genius! You always do well in everything. You... you... Ugh!" She threw her hands in the air._

"_So you're just going to hide from this forever, aren't you?" He was starting to sound annoyed._

"_What do you mean hide? I'm not hiding, I just want to... I... just forget it, alright? I don't want to talk about it."_

"_See? You're shirking." Tenten couldn't bare this anymore. Wasn't he supposed to comfort her?_

"_Shut up Hyuuga Neji!" She shrieked. She had stood up without noticing it. Neji didn't even flinch at her sudden movement. _

"_You knew this was coming, didn't you?" He replied casually, picking up another flower and plucking it again._

"_What?!"_

"_You said, all day and all night when we were training for this test. You said you knew you weren't going to pass didn't you? You were always going "Oh, this isn't going to work, I'm done for. I'm not going to pass the test" Don't you remember? You gave up when you didn't do well, didn't you? You..." Neji fell silent. Tenten had slapped him in the face. Tenten was panting furiously and tears were running down her face. She was so angry; she didn't know what to say. Neji stood up and looked at Tenten in the eye, who couldn't look back in return. She tried furiously to avoid his gaze. Deep inside, she knew what Neji wanted to say, and she knew he was right. But she had not expected this to be said out loud._

"_You... you... Don't understand... You..." She sobbed._

"_YOU!" She screamed and starting banging her fists on his chest crazily. Neji grabbed her wrist tightly._

"_LET GO OF ME YOU BASTARD... YOU... YOU" She looked like a lunatic. Neji, still clutching at Tenten's wrists, leaned down so close, their noses almost touched. _

"_Don't say I don't understand." He breathed dangerously in her face. _

_"Do you remember me and Naruto's fight back in our chounin exam?" He asked. Tenten had stopped trying to wriggle free, and was panting heavily. Neji let go of Tenten's wrists._

"_Look at you. I'm disappointed, Tenten." He said before turning to leave._

_xxxxxxxxxx_

"_Neji, someone is here for you." A maid called through the door of his room._

"_Who is it?" He asked, surprised someone was here to visit him at this hour._

"_It's Tenten, should I tell her to leave?" The maid asked._

"_No… let her in." Neji replied uneasily. They had still not recovered from their fight, and hadn't talked to each other for a whole two weeks. The door slid open slowly, and Tenten walked in. There was a long and awkward silence._

"_Sit down." Neji said, breaking the silence. He pulled over a chair and motioned for Tenten to sit. Tenten opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again, and sat down on the chair. Another long silence._

"_I..." Tenten stammered. She bit her lower lip._

"_I..." She blushed. "I... I..." She turned to Neji, and then looked away._

"_I..."_

"_Just get to it will you?" Neji said trying to hold back a laugh. Tenten glared at him._

"_I'm sorry for what I did last time." She snapped, and stood up to leave._

"_Wait." Neji called after her, pulling at her hand._

"_What?" She replied, trying not to smile._

"_Promise me you'll pass the exam next time." He said, staring at her in the eye._

"_Why?" She asked._

"_Don't you want to?" His brow furrowed._

"_I... I do, but..."_

"_Then promise me." She bit her lip._

"_Fine, I promise." She smiled. Neji nodded._

"_Can I go now?" She asked._

"_Not yet." He replied._

"_Oh, now what? You don't need me to pinkie swear with you, do you?" She teased. Neji ignored her and pulled out a box._

"_Here." He said casually._

"_Wa...What?" Tenten blushed. Neji didn't reply, and held out the box silently. Tenten reached out for it, and opened it slowly. Inside, was a shiny silver kunai._

"_Oh, Neji, it's beautiful! Thank..."_

"_It's not yours." He cut her off. The smile on Tenten's face faded instantly._

"_Oh...I" she stammered._

"_Yet." Neji added._

"_Huh?"_

"_It's not yours yet." He said again. "It will be, only if you pass the exam." Tenten smiled._

"_Thanks anyway, Neji." She said softly, and turned to leave._

xxxxxxxxxx

Neji sat in the corridor of the hospital, hands laced together, resting on his thighs, outside Tenten's room. The morning sun was caressing him cheerily through the window. He stood up, and switched to a spot out of the sun. The happiness of the sunlight was annoying him.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" A voice came from front of him said. He looked up, and saw Sakura smiling at him.

"Hn." He replied. The pink haired kunoichi took that as a "yes", and settled herself beside the Hyuuga. They were silent for a while, as they listened to a bird chirp outside the window.

"I...I'm so sorry." Sakura said, suddenly.

"Why?" Neji asked, turning to her.

"Well, I... I was the first medic nin who tended her, wasn't I? But I didn't notice anything, I just feel like... it's my responsibility." She slumped her shoulders sadly.

"You wouldn't have noticed." Neji mumbled through his fingers.

"Yes... but."

"What I don't understand is." Neji cut her off.

"Why has she lost her memory? All the medic nins who tended her, and myself, didn't notice a head injury, except for maybe a few scratches, when she came in. You've scanned her head for bruises and stuff, but nothing. What is causing this?" He scowled and closed his eyes.

"Well, it might have been because of shock. You said she was terrified when you first saw her." Sakura suggested.

"Could be..." Neji mumbled.

"Don't worry; we'll be giving her a detailed check up later on today. She seems to be in a stable state now, so the fifth will be here with the investigating team to find out what has happened. You can come and be with her if you want."

"I'll be there." Neji said standing up to leave. Sakura followed.

"Well, see you after lunch then." She said nodding at him. She turned and walked away, the echoing click of her heels fading into the distance. Neji turned to walk the opposite way towards the exit of the hospital. He didn't feel like eating. Hands in his pockets, he dragged his feet along the sandy street, dust trailing him as the stepping of his feet disturbed the ground. He looked around at the busy street around him. People were stuffing things into his face, trying to sell them.

"Flowers for your loved ones, sir?"

"Fresh fish!"

"The best ramen in town…"

He felt uneasy. Someone was following him. He continued walking, pretending he had not noticed anything, but at the same time, aware of all the people walking through the streets, he steered himself towards the forest, which was a much more deserted place. If a battle had to be fought, at least it wouldn't harm anyone innocent. The environment around him was becoming more and more quiet. He activated his Byakugan, and spotted his follower. He sighed a sigh of annoyance and relief.

"Have you got nothing better to do than to stalk people?" He asked.

"Damn, you found me!" A girl stepped from behind a tree, giggling.

Sixteen year old Kasumi Sano was one of the most beautiful girls in Konoha. With her long, sleek, brown hair, dazzling black eyes, and a smile so stunning, most boys could only blush when with her. Neji, who was (unsurprisingly) one of the few males who could work with her, was sometimes put on missions with her, as the fifth couldn't find any other male who wouldn't drool more than they bled on missions. They had become good friends during the past few years, and Neji taught her a few things and trained her when he had time. The Sano family was well known for their silent movements. They were taught how to not clash with their surroundings, and become "one" with them. Instead of running head against the wind, they would twist and turn and bend themselves, so they could actually flow along with it. Instead of swimming in the water, they glided through it, following the patterns of the waves and currents. This made them hardly detectable if they moved whilst keeping themselves hidden, very useful when spying on an enemy. Unfortunately, Kasumi's family was killed in the war a few years ago, and she had been living alone ever since.

"What did I miss this time?" She said looking up in the sky. "How did you know I was following you?"

"You still have to work on your landing when you jump." Neji turned to her. "Your landing makes too much noise. Here, remember, when you land, you have to…"

"Alright, alright." She said waving a hand at him. "Don't start your endless lecture again, I'm tired!" She moaned, pouting cutely, and looking innocently at him with sad eyes.

"You know that never works on me, young lady." He said poking a finger at her. She rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. I'm hungry; can we go and get something to eat?"

"You are incredibly like Naruto, aren't you?" He said frowning at the girl in front if him. Kasumi ignored, and dragged him towards the town centre. They both found a decent restaurant, and sat down.

"I went to visit Tenten a few days ago." Kasumi started.

"Hn…"

"I heard she woke up this morning. How is she?"

"Fine,"

"Don't lie."

"Huh?" Neji turned his head to Kasumi.

"I know. I heard from Ino earlier, she forgot about everything, didn't she?" Neji chose not to reply, and stared blankly at the table.

"Miso and Shoyu Ramen?" A pretty waitress broke the silence between them as she stepped beside their table with a tray of two hot steaming ramens. Kasumi nodded at her, and they watched as she placed the bowls in front of them. Kasumi picked up her chopsticks and poked at the ramen.

"Any idea of who the attacker was?" Kasumi started again. Neji shook his head.

"Not even a clue?"

"No."

"Not even a tiny one?"

"No!"

"Teeny weenie one?"

"NO!" Kasumi giggled.

"So no clue at all, 0" She smiled.

"Do you actually think this is funny?" He asked.

"Sorry, but you seemed so depressed, I just wanted to cheer you up." She replied.

"Well it hasn't worked very well, has it?" He said coolly. He picked at his own ramen, and took small bites of it.

"Why are you so interested anyway? Have you got a clue?" He shot back.

"Nope." She replied simply. Neji scowled and continued on his ramen.

"You know," Kasumi said, as she watched him eat.

"Hn…?"

"Do you still remember that guy you told me about, the one who's got the Sharingan,"

"Sasuke."

"That's the one. Tell me more about him."

"Why, you think he did it?"

"Well, he is a missing nin, which means he's a rebel. I don't think he would be bothered if he had to attack one of us."

"There are many missing nins from Konoha, Kasumi, what makes you think it's him?" Neji said between gritted teeth.

"I don't, it was merely just a suggestion." She replied. "…and according to what I've heard, he certainly is strong enough."

Without realizing his strength, the glass of tea Neji was clutching on suddenly burst, glass shards collapsed and fell to the table with sharp, crisp noises. Many people in the restaurant turned curiously to see what had caused the racket. The pretty waitress rushed over and quickly took a piece of cloth out of her pocket, sweeping the broken glass away.

"Let's talk about something else." He said. The thought of Uchiha Sasuke torturing Tenten to this state gave him the chills.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Neji had finished his meal and was back in the hospital again. He walked slowly towards Tenten's room. A part of him was dragging him back.

"_Who are you?"_ These three words rang in his head constantly, and every time it did, he felt something drop to his stomach. His chest felt like someone was pressing hard on it, swallowing was difficult. He couldn't bring himself to see her, yet he wanted to see her so much.

When he got to Tenten's room, a group of medic nins were already gathered around her bed, as well as Gai, Lee, Sakura, and Tsunade. Tenten was peering at them all curiously. She looked well, but something about her was different. Her expressions, the look in her eyes, it seemed like another soul had crawled secretly into Tenten's body. This was not her anymore. She seemed worse than she had been in the morning. In the morning, she still had something "Tenten" about her, but now, it had totally disappeared.

"Neji, you're just in time." Tsunade smiled as he opened the door. Tenten peered at him curiously.

"Neji," Sakura whispered, as he chose a spot next to her.

"Remember, if you want to ask a question, don't shout it out, or ask when someone else is talking. And speak slowly, try not to confuse her."

"You're talking about her like she's mentally retarded or somethi…" Neji started. He stopped before he could finish, because Tenten had suddenly start to giggle to herself.

"To a certain extent, she is." Sakura said worriedly. Neji closed his eyes and breathed. The fifth found a seat beside Tenten's bed.

"Hello, Tenten." She started.

"Do you know where you are?" Tenten giggled at the fifth and shook her head.

"You're at the hospital right now, Tenten. Do you know who I am?" Tenten stared at the fifth for a while.

"Tsu…" She tried. Everyone froze and stared.

"That's right, Tsu…" Tsunade urged.

"Tsu… Tsu…" Everyone was leaning towards her, eyes wide open.

"Tsu… TSUNAMI!!" Tenten fell into another fit of giggles. The fifth scratched her head.

"Do you know why you're here?" Tsunade tried again.

"I…" Tenten frowned.

"I'm hurt." She finally said.

"Yes, do you know why?"

"I… I'm… It…." Tenten frowned harder.

"It's just the beginning!" She squeaked gleefully. Neji blinked at Sakura. Tenten's constant sudden change of expressions was almost spooky.

"The beginning?" Tsunade frowned.

"Beginning of what?"

"Just the beginning! It's just the beginning! There's more! More!" She clapped her hands and smiled broadly at all of them. She leaned forward and peered at them all with childish eyes.

"Aren't you scared?" She asked. Everyone in the room looked at each other.

"Scared?" Gai Sensei asked.

"Are you not scared at all? Is this not enough?"

"Tenten, of course we're worried. How could we not be when you're so badly injured?" Sakura asked.

"No!" She said, looking hoarsely at the pink haired kunoichi.

"No no no! You're not scared! You're not frightened! But there will be more! How come you aren't afraid!!??"

"Tenten, calm down! How would we know what to be afraid of if you don't tell us?" Neji said, looking worried.

"No!!! AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!" Tenten suddenly flew into a fit. She closed her hands around her ears and screamed hysterically. She kicked and twitched, and Neji ran to her side.

"Tenten!" He said, trying to hold her still. The medic nins sprang into action, most of them holding her still as one of them poked a needle into her skin. Immediately, she started to calm down, and gradually fell asleep into Neji's arms. The fifth exhaled, blinking at the unconscious girl in front of her.

"Is she alright?" Lee asked, staring blankly at Tenten.

"She's fine, we just gave her something to calm her down" A medic nin replied. Lee's face had turned sickly pale.

"E… Excuse me." He said, running out of the room. Everyone watched as Lee, covering his mouth, sprinted towards the left.

"This has got to be one of the weirdest amnesias I have ever seen." Tsunade sighed standing up.

"She seems to not only have lost her memory; it's almost as if… as if her_ character_ has gone as well."

"Have you still not found any clue to why she's like this?" Gai asked, shaking his head.

"We've checked everything we could." Sakura replied.

"We've checked her brain, her bones, muscles… nothing seems to be wrong."

"Is she getting any better at all?" Neji asked. There was a few moment of silence. Only the steady breathing of Tenten and the quiet humming of the machines next to her could be heard.

"We really can't tell." Tsunade finally replied. Her injuries have healed well, but her amnesia hasn't seemed to improve much at all. Sometimes, she's giggling to herself. Sometimes, she looks like she's concentrating really hard on something. Sometimes, she just sits there and looks blankly at thin air. Maybe, it's not amnesia at all, maybe she's become crazy or something because of shock."

"But why is she saying there's more? More of what?" Neji asked.

"I know as much as you do." The fifth replied."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Neji found himself waking up to something shuffling near his head. He sprang into a sitting position and looked around. Yes, he was in Tenten's room. He had decided to stay with her while she was asleep. Without realizing it, he had fallen asleep himself, head and arms resting on Tenten's bed. He looked out the window. It was getting dark. He looked at Tenten, expecting her to be asleep, but her eyes were wide open, and she was staring blankly at the ceiling.

"You're awake." He said. His heart had skipped a beat. He had not expected her to be so wide awake.

"You're awake." She said dully.

"I… I'm sorry." Neji blushed.

"What for?" She asked.

"I…I er… for falling asleep? " He scratched his head and leaned back on his chair.

"Is that wrong?" She removed her eyes from the ceiling, and looked at Neji into the eye.

"Well… No… I guess."

"Then you shouldn't apologize."

"I'm…"

"Who are you?" She asked again. Neji felt his heart sink again.

"I'm Neji Hyuuga. I used to be a team mate of yours." He sighed.

"You sound sad. Were you not happy to be my team mate?" She frowned.

"No, I was very happy." He smiled.

"You seem much calmer than this afternoon, Tenten."

"I know." She said matter-of-factly.

"Would you like me to help you sit up?"

"Yes please." Neji put his arms around her shoulder, and lifted her up into a sitting position. He placed her pillow neatly behind her back and rested her on it. There was knock on the door, and Sakura poked her head in.

"Tenten, you're awake." She beamed. Tenten said nothing.

"I've brought you dinner." Sakura ignored the silence and opened the door more widely, revealing herself holding a tray of hot food. Tenten gave no reaction whatsoever, but Sakura, who seemed used to it, walked in and placed the tray onto the table. Sakura found a seat on the other side of her bed, and looked at Tenten for a minute.

"Do you not like the food?" She asked. Tenten shook her head.

"Who are you?" She asked tilting her head slightly and studied the woman in front of her.

"I told you yesterday, Tenten, I'm Sakura, an old friend of yours. Now eat before the food gets cold." She said, fumbling with the food with a spoon. Tenten stared at the food for a long time, then picked up her spoon and started eating.

"Why is she so differ…" Neji started, but Sakura cut him off sharply.

"We can talk about this outside." She frowned. Tenten peeked up at them. Suddenly, she choked on her food, coughing hysterically.

"Tenten, are you alright?" Sakura said, rushing to her feet and patting her on the back.

"I…cough… I'm fine… cough cough" She stuttered in reply.

"EAAAGGGHHHH!!" Tenten let out a horrible scream, hands grabbing at her head like she had a terrible headache.

"Does your head hurt?" Neji said leaning close to her. Tenten suddenly took hold of Neji's hand and grasped it so tightly, he felt like it was going to burst.

"Neji!" She gasped.

"Yes… what?"

"Neji!! It's… it's not going away!! O… OROCHIMARU!" She screamed again, tears running down her face. As suddenly as she had started, Tenten fainted, collapsing into her pillow.

**END OF CHAPTER 3**

**Sorry guys for not updating during Christmas, like I had promised. But here it is. Hope you enjoyed it. I can't tell when the next chapter will be up. But plzz keep reviewing. Xoxo**

**xholicx**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Master… please…" she pleaded.

"Silence!" Orochimaru spat, his voice thundering off the stone walls of his hiding place.

"But master!" She whimpered.

"Wouldn't it be quicker if we just found… another one? The village has much potential, like Neji Hyuuga. Your body's state is getting worse by day, I fear…"

"I SAID SILENCE, KARASU!" He turned to her. The said Karasu was wearing a long hooded cloak, which shadowed her face from view. She seemed to flinch at her master's sudden movement and roaring voice. The pebbles on the floor seemed to quiver at his volume. Clearly, he was very,_**very**_ angry. He walked close to her, his face inches from Karasu, with his breath touching her face. She suddenly found Orochimaru's yellow eyes uncomfortably close, Karasu looked away.

"Do you know how much time I have spent on that boy?" He breathed dangerously

"I will _NOT_ put to waste all the time and effort I have spent on him!" He roared. She breathed heavily, frightened. Orochimaru leaned back, and smiled, revealing his pointed teeth.

"Now, you continue to do what I have told you to. Keep a close watch on all of Sasuke's old friends. Especially Naruto… no, they wouldn't trust that stupid blabbermouth. Neji… yes… he's wise, likely to be in it… we must find him! Too little progress has been made!"

"But Master, I have already done all I can, I…"

"RUBBISH!" He yelled again. "You haven't. The letters, read all the letters, keep a close watch on the activity of the fifth, I will try to get some information through that girl."

"Yes Master." Karasu answered timidly. Orochimaru turned to look at Karasu, and said more gently. "Karasu, my dear, dear Karasu. Do you not understand? Do you not want revenge? Do you not remember how your parents, your family had died?"

"Yes, Master." She whispered.

"Good, good." Orochimaru smiled in satisfaction. "When I regain my powers again… yes… we will be able to punish those people, like I had promised."

"Yes… Master…" she said again. And with a bow, she disappeared into the darkness. Orochimaru cackled to himself, alone, in the cave.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tenten had fainted for two days now, and everyone was becoming increasingly worried. Neji went to visit her everyday. Although all of Tenten's bodily conditions were normal, she did not wake from her deep slumber.

"Neji!" A sweet, cheerful voice called to him. He turned to see Kasumi waving at him on the other side of the road, a large green bag heaved upon her shoulder. Neji crossed the road to her.

"Neji! Hi! Making your way to the hospital?" She was panting slightly; her face was flushed, and was sweating slightly. The weight of the green bag was costing her a lot of energy. Neji nodded.

"What's that?" he asked, peering at the stuffed bag on Kasumi's shoulder.

"Oh, it's the town's post." She smiled, flashing her pearly white teeth at him.

"The town's post…?" He asked

"Yeah, I got a part time job at the post office yesterday, just to gain a little more." She replied.

"A part time job?" Neji scratched his head. "Aren't you earning enough with the missions?" He asked.

"Well…" Kasumi shuffled her feet. "I saw this… well… _necklace_ at the market yesterday and… well… " She giggled. Neji smirked.

"No wonder. Good luck then." He said patting her on the head. Kasumi broke into a beautiful smile.

"Thank you!" She waved him off as he continued his way towards the hospital.

Neji walked with his hands stuffed deep into his pockets and took a deep breath. Despite the heat, dark, grey, intimidating clouds loomed above the heads of the inhabitants of Konoha. It was incredibly humid, just like the way it was every time before a storm. A muggy layer of moist air lingered in the atmosphere. Everyone felt sticky and sweaty today. It was not pleasant at all. This type of weather rarely occurred in Konoha. Everyone in the village was used to the fact that Konoha was summer all year round. It rained occasionally, but not much. The sun was out almost all the time. Today, the sun was nowhere to be seen, and the shadows of the clouds seem to cast a layer of greyness over everyone, physically, and emotionally.

Suddenly, Neji felt something weird land on his neck. It wasn't painful, it was almost ticklish. It felt like… a prick. He touched his neck at where he had felt the prick, and found his hand damp. He felt it again, this time; it was on his arm… another one landed on his hand. He looked up at the sky. Yes… it was raining, and it was getting heavier every second. Without notice, rain came down in bucketfuls, and Neji found himself drenched instantly. All around him, people were screaming, screeching, laughing, and searching for shelter. Some of the town's people frantically tried to shut their stalls and head home. Some gave up and enjoyed the cool shower on the hot summer day. Nevertheless, the rain came down, heavier, and heavier, until all Neji could see was a blanket of white rain in front of him. Without thinking, he sprinted as fast as he could towards the hospital. Mud was splashing around his feet. He was caked with mud from his knees downwards, but he didn't bother, he kept running. He reached the hospital and flung the doors open. He stepped into the shelter, gasping for breath. A few medic nins at the reception gaped at him, shocked at his sudden entry. He shrugged at them, dripping rain water from head to toe.

"EEEEAAAGGGHHHH!!!" A blood hurtling scream echoed down the white corridors. Heart racing, Neji turned to the source, expecting to see some horrible monster, but what he saw was much worse.

Sakura was stomping over to him, eyes flaming in pure anger. Her nostril flared, her pink hair flapped behind her like fire. She came face to face with the Hyuuga. Not knowing what he had done, Neji stared at Sakura.

"Er… hello… Sakura…" He tried.

"Hello." She said dangerously, eyes glued on him. Neji thought of something to say.

"I… um…. Why, what a nice outfit you have on toda…." SMASH! Neji found himself being brutally punched on the left check. He fell to the floor, gasping for breath.

"Wh… WHAT?" He asked.

"THAT!" she screamed, pointing a long slender finger at Neji's feet. It turned out he had left a mud trail of footprints on the glistening hospital floor.

"Argghhh!! Whadamahgonnadu, WHAT AM I GONNA DO?" She said jumping. The sight of Sakura being hysterical was slightly amusing, Neji wanted to grin, but decided against it.

"Chill, Sakura, its only mud, just…"

"DON'T YOU EVEN START! Do you _KNOW_?! The Kazekage will be here any minute now! What is he going to think when he walks in and sees this? Oh… the shame…"

"Wait," Neji started.

"When you say Kazekage, you don't mean Gaara, do you?"

"Yes of course I mean Gaara, who else is there, you idiot." She snapped.

"What is he doing here?" He asked, slightly dumfounded.

"Thanks to Naruto, Gaara heard of Tenten's condition. According to him, he has a very good medic nin over there that may be able to solve her problem." Sakura answered

"Really? So is he bringing him today?" He asked. Sakura seemed slightly annoyed by Neji's excitement.

"Yes…" She sniffed. "And for your information, Gaara's bringing a _female_ nin. I really don't get _why_ though. It's not as if Konoha _lacks_ medical knowledge or anything. I mean, what _they_ can do, _we_ can as _well_, right? We've already done _everything_ possible, it's not like…. Blah blah blah" Neji could not care less about Sakura's jealous talk. Still lying on the floor, his eyes were level to everyone's legs. He realized a dark clothed pair of them had walked in, with a few other pairs next to it. He slowly ascended his sight upwards, and found himself looking into Gaara's face. Embarrassed with his current pathetic position, he scrambled to stand up. Sakura, whose back was facing the door, noticed the hospital had suddenly reduced its volume to whispers and murmurs. She turned her head, and gasped at the sight, her face flushing.

"Boy, is it raining." Naruto said, shaking his head like a dog so that water flew from his hair onto everyone around him. Temari gave him a rather nasty look.

"Oh, hello, w… welcome to the Konoha h… hospital." Sakura stuttered. Gaara merely nodded at her, which made her grow into an even brighter shade of red. Neji studied the group which had just walked in. Leading the pack, was Gaara, the Kazekage of Sunagakure. Since the last time Neji had seen him, which was in a meeting about Jonin exams two months ago, Gaara had become more muscular and well built. He was about one or two feet taller than he had been during his teenage days. The dark circles under his eyes were still present. Although he had long disposed his hostile character, he still rarely smiled, but replaced his cold expression with gentleness. Next to him, stood his brother and sister, Temari and Kankuro. Then, there was Naruto, and finally, a stranger, which Neji assumed, to be the brilliant medic nin Sakura had been talking about.

Neji was surprised to see that this woman looked about the same age as the rest of them. If not, maybe even younger. She had short black hair, and was quite small; skinny and short. Mischief seemed to glint in her eye, and she was smiling softly, a laid-back, childish sort of smile. She peered around the hospital curiously. Neji wondered how anyone would rely on her for healing them.

"Neji!" Naruto boomed. "There you are. I've been wanting to tell you! Gaara says he's got a really good medic nin here. She might be able to cure Tenten." He exclaimed.

At this, Sakura shuffled next to him, eyes darting back and forth from Gaara to the medic nin. Gaara went up to shake Neji's hand.

"This is Aoki Ai. The Aoki family has been famous in our village for their medical skills for a very long time. Ai is the only daughter of the Aoki family." He waved his hand in Ai's direction. She nodded at them, smiling.

"I've heard of the Aoki family as well." Sakura said suddenly. "Your father is a wonderful medic nin, isn't he?" She asked, looking at Ai.

"Well, yes." She answered slowly. "But…"

"Why isn't he here today? I mean, Tenten's case is very complicated and frustrating, wouldn't it be better if…"

"Unfortunately," Gaara said loudly over Sakura

"Aoki Taishi fell very ill last year and has been struggling to recover. Ai has been replacing him in his clinic ever since it has been inconvenient for him to work in it, and has been doing very well indeed. Her mother stayed behind to look after her father." Sakura instantly turned red again.

"I assure you, she will do fine." He continued.

"Y… yes, I agree." She stammered. The room was silent for a few seconds, before Neji broke it.

"Why don't you… umm, show the guests where Tenten is." He suggested. Sakura seemed relieved the subject had been changed.

"Yes!" She exclaimed, looking around frantically.

"Err, this… this way please!" She turned stiffly towards the left, and started leading them down a corridor towards Tenten's room.

"Funny, isn't it?" Naruto whispered next to Neji. "I mean, a family of brilliant medic nins, and one ends up in a sickbed and all…"

"I get what you mean, but I don't think "funny" is the best word to describe it, Naruto." He whispered back

"Oh you get what I mean, you know…" Naruto scratched his head.

"Ironic, you mean." Neji smirked

"Yeah! That was the word I was looking for." Unaware of what had been happening, both Neji and Naruto had not realized the group had stopped, and found themselves suddenly walking into the person in front of them. Temari turned to give Naruto a frightening glare while Gaara completely ignored Neji.

"Tenten! Y… you're awake!" Sakura's voice exclaimed. Neji took a sharp intake of breath and looked around Gaara. Sure enough, Tenten had awoken. In fact, she had gotten out of bed, out of her room, and had been wondering around when they had walked into her. Tenten looked at them with wide, paranoid eyes, yet, she let out a giggle. She continued to study the people in front of her.

"Take her back to her room." Sakura said to two medic nins next to her, and they walked up to Tenten and tried leading Tenten towards her room. Tenten wouldn't budge.

"Come on now, let's go." One said. But Tenten continued to stare at the people in front of her.

"Tenten, Tenten!" Another said, pulling at her arm. Tenten slowly turned to towards the direction to where the medic nin was trying to lead her to, and walked off.

"Well…" Sakura started, frowning. "That was Tenten. As you can see, she is _very_ out of character, and does not seem to remember anything that has happened before the attack, and sometimes, things afterwards as well."

"Has she… always been like that, ever since the attack, I mean." Ai asked.

"She has been very unstable." Sakura replied, frowning harder. When she first woke up, she was quite calm, and still in character, except she could not remember anything. But after a while, she became increasingly… well… hysterical. She also seems to be having horrible headaches – which leads to her fainting quite a lot as well." Sakura replied, sighing.

"Headaches?" Ai said. "What happens when she has them?"

"Well, they seem pretty painful. She screams a lot, and last time…" She glanced over at Neji before continueing, "Last time, before she fainted, she said "Orochimaru"" Sakura shook her head.

"Orochimaru?" Temari gasped.

"Well, Tenten has been saying a lot of weird things lately; I wasn't sure weather to take it seriously or not." Sakura replied. Neji was not sure whether this had been said for self-defence or to reassure Temari.

"Are you sure it's not because of shock, Post-traumatic stress disorder, or anything of the sort?" Ai pressed

"I doubt it." Sakura replied, becoming a little annoyed.

"If it was, I don't understand why she wasn't like this in the first place. Her disorder is getting worse." Sakura went on

"It may be because of the way your hospital has been tending to her, maybe it is the wrong method you guys are using, or…"

"Our hospital knows perfectly well what it is doing, thanks! In fact, the fifth Hokage is in charge of her!" snapped Sakura.

"I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean…" Ai stuttered.

"Maybe we should take a closer look at her?" Gaara said quickly. Sakura frowned at Ai one last time before turning to continue leading them to Tenten's room. Sakura pushed the handle of the door and opened it.

"Oh dear!" She whispered quietly.

**End of Chapter 4**

**Hope you enjoyed it. Sorry again for the late update. ) School has blocked this website from the school network, so even though I have my own computer now, I can update only when I'm at home for my holidays. (**

**Have a nice summer!**

**xholicx**

**p.s. if you guys realize any mistakes (e.g. spelling, grammar, ect.) plz tell me!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter**** 5**

"Oh dear" Sakura whispered quietly. The sight in front of them was not a pleasant one at all. Tenten seemed to be having another one of her headaches again. She twisted and squirmed in her sheets, desperate for the pain to leave, to go away. Neji ran up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Tenten, TENTEN!" He yelled at her. Gasping for breath, Tenten turned to look at Neji. The same way she had always done before all this had happened. It was the look she always gave Neji every time they were alone. It was a desperate stare.

"N... Neji" She whispered, struggling for air.

"Yes... What is it?" He asked, as she clenched his arm forcefully. Tenten did not seem to be able to wheeze more words out of her mouth anymore. She turned to look at the crowd which had just entered. She reached out at the group of people, her hands tried to grab something in thin air. Puzzled by her act, the group looked at one another, trying to figure out what Tenten was trying to tell them.

"Tenten, is there something on the wall?" Naruto suggested, scanning the wall behind with his clear blue eyes. He put his ear against the wall and knocked on it.

"It's solid" He said, shrugging at Tenten

"Unlike your head..." Temari muttered under her breath. Tenten shook her head slowly, she tried to say something, she opened her mouth, but no sounds came out. She looked at Neji one more time, pleading him to understand her, before collapsing once again onto Neji.

Neji felt a pang in his chest. He felt so... useless. Now, Tenten was trying hopelessly to tell him something, but he just did not seem to realize what she was trying to express. Sighing, he laid her down gently onto her bed again.

"Ai, are you alright?" Neji heard Kankuro ask. Neji tore his gaze from Tenten to look at the Medic Nin. She was gravely pale, and her whole body seemed to be trembling. Beads of sweat covered her forehead.

"I... I'm fine," She breathed slowly. Her voice was quivering as well.

"It... it's just that... she... seems to be suffering so much... I really wish I could help her." She stammered. Neji caught Sakura rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"Oh, Ai!" Temari exclaimed, placing an arm around her shoulder.

"That's what you're here for, isn't it? Be strong, and I'm sure you can heal her." Giving a feathery smile, she nodded.

"I... I'm sorry, I'm just being emotional." She sniffed, glancing up at Neji.

"D... don't worry! I'll find a way to... heal her!" She mustered a smile at Neji, whom could not seem to return it. After a moment of silence, Ai seemed to have pulled herself together, as this time; she spoke in a much stronger and clearer voice.

"I would like to have some time alone with Tenten." She announced.

"And after that, I would like a word with the medic nin in charge of her" She glanced at Sakura, who gave her a phoney smile.

"...And the first people to have contact with her after her attack." She finished, now looking at Neji. Realizing the "I'm finished talking now" tone of the young medic nin, the group left the hospital room obediently, one by one. As Neji was walking out, Sakura caught up with him and murmured

"I don't feel comfortable, leaving_ that girl_ and Tenten alone." Neji had nothing against Aoki Ai. He had only just met her minutes ago anyway. He, unlike Sakura, did not have a need to feel threatened by her either. Nevertheless, Neji had to agree with Sakura. He did not feel happy with leaving the medic nin with Tenten either. There was something about this girl, but Neji could not figure out what. She was a lovely girl... but maybe, just a bit too lovely. She was sweet, but a bit too heavy for Neji. Like a large chocolate cupcake with inches of chocolate icing and a tower of whipped cream. It looked delicious, but he was not tempted to take even a bite off it. (Why was he thinking of such a bad example?)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_"Neji!" He heard Tenten scream._

_"Why? Why did you have to give me your eye?" She grasped onto his shoulders and shook him.. _

_"Neji, I am so sorry to tell you, but you have caused all this pain for Tenten!" Exclaimed Ai, who had just popped out of nowhere, holding a clipboard. Suddenly, Sakura burst into the room and punched him._

_"You've left muddy footprints all over the floor!" She screamed. _

Neji suddenly shot up, gasping for breath, sweat dripping down his temple. He placed a hand on his forehead and groaned. It had been a dream, but it had been one that reflected reality. Ever since the one-on-one talk session he had had with Ai, he had been feeling very uncomfortable indeed. He could still clearly remember Ai walking out of the room a few minutes after she had been left with Tenten, and asking to speak with Sakura privately. They went to talk in a vacant hospital room, but after about fifteen minutes, Sakura was already storming out of it and ordering Naruto to go in instead. After a few minutes of that, Naruto and Ai both came out. Ai was looking rather annoyed, and Naruto was scratching his head, not knowing what he had done. Finally, it was Neji's turn, and he walked slowly towards the empty room. After settling themselves onto two chairs, Ai started asking questions immediately.

"So it was you who found her first?" She smiled sweetly at him.

"Hn." He replied.

"Was anyone else, other than... _Naruto_ with you?" She said Naruto's name as if it were some kind of disease.

"If you count the 30 or so people who had been standing around and watching." He said, crossing his arms. Ai nodded thoughtfully, and scribbled something down onto a clipboard she was holding.

"What was she doing when you first saw her?"

"Well... she was carrying her team mate, and... she was... bleeding..." More scribbling from Ai.

"Was there anything unusual about her? Blood pressure, heart rate..."

"Why don't you ask Sakura?" Ai rolled her eyes at this comment, and ignored it.

"Was she awake when you found her?"

"What was she wearing?"

"How heavy, do you suppose, was the man she was carrying?" And so the questions went on and on, until...

"So... after that you offered your eye...?" Ai asked, perking an eyebrow.

"Hn." Was the reply.

"May I ask, what kind of relationship do you have with Tenten?"

"No, you may not ask." He replied. The Medic nin strained her lips into a thin line, clearly offended.

"You do realize, that a Byakugan is not as easy to control as you may think it is, for people who were not brought up to use it."

"I thought that it wouldn't affect her. Sakura said it was only used to heal her, and the powers wouldn't actually have any affect on her since it was such a small part."

"Oh, now is that what Sakura said?" She said mockingly. Neji was getting annoyed.

"Yes, that was what she said, and the fifth Hokage was beside her when she did, and she made no objections, all right?" He said angrily.

"Fine" She finished, lying back down onto the back of her chair.

"But, as a medic nin, I should be telling you this," She continued.

"The Byakugan uses a lot of Chakra. For a person who is low on it, and is healing, it defiantly is not a good idea to make her have to deal with it. Did you not think of this when you offered to give it to her? You know, this whole thing might just be due to that eye of yours."

"So are you accusing me of all this?" He whispered angrily.

"If you would like to put it that way, Neji, I..." Without bothering to listen to the rest of her sentence, Neji stood up, suddenly and forcefully, knocking over the chair he had been sitting in. Without a word, he raged out of the room.

Neji groaned again at the memory of the happenings of the afternoon. He had been irritated, and Gaara had expressed regret for the way Ai had spoken, but somehow, he felt mortified. What Ai had said was, in fact, valid to a certain extent. He remembered Gai sensei trying to prevent him:

_"I know you and Tenten are close, but your Byakugan, are you sure you can just give half of it away like that? Will Tenten's body be able to get used to it? You do understand that using the Byakugan needs extra chakra."_

Neji tried to shake the thought out of his head. Why was it every time he tried to help, he made matters worse? He lay back down on his large, cozy bed. For the rest of the night, he tossed and turned, hoping sleep would soon envelope him, but it never came.

Neji lay awake with his eyes open. He saw the sky outside turn very slowly from night to day. From a raven black to a navy blue, then, to the colour of light, watery blue, and finally merging into a white and yellow sky. He glanced over at his clock. It was 7 o clock when he heard a faint knock on the door. He quickly sat up on his bed, and got out of it.

"Come in." He cried out. Slowly, the door skated open, and Neji found himself gazing at Hiashi sama. Slightly startled, he nodded at his uncle. It was usually he who went to find him, and even when his uncle was the one who wanted to see him, he had never come personally, but had asked a servant or another member of the family to go fetch him. He walked into Neji's room, and a servant girl followed him in, holding two cups of hot tea on a tray. She set the cups down, and bowed low to the Hyuugas before quietly tiptoeing out of the room and sliding the door shut.

"Good morning, Neji." His uncle said, settling himself onto a chair in his room. Neji remained standing.

"Good morning, Hiashi sama." He replied, impassively.

"It is a great day today, isn't it?" His uncle replied him, trying to sound cheerful. Neji narrowed his eyes at his uncle. It was not like him, the leader of the Hyuuga clan, to be like this.

"Just cut to the point." He said, avoiding his eye. Even he was slightly surprised by his own bravery to talk back like that.

"Alright, I will." Hiashi said, smiling. Neji wondered what his uncle had in mind. He was acting _very strange_ indeed. Without getting a reply, Hiashi assumed that his nephew was listening, and continued.

"Well, you see, Neji," he started slowly and carefully.

"I've been thinking...you are, 19, and you are one of the finest ninjas in our clan." Neji made no reaction to this compliment. Still seeing no reply from him, Hiashi continued, saying his crucial sentence.

"I think it's time you thought about getting married." He finished. He studied his nephew's face. It was hard to read, as he remained keeping it blank.

"I do not wish to get married..." He replied after a short pause. He knew this day would come, but not so soon.

"I knew you were going to say that." Hiashi said, taking a sip of tea.

"Therefore, I have decided to be a bit more liberal with you. I have decided that you will marry someone you would like to."

Somebody he would like to marry? What did he mean by that? Even Neji _himself_ did not know who it was he wanted to marry. He could not imagine how his uncle would know any better than himself. Neji stared perplexedly at Hiashi.

"And who would that be?" He asked. Hiashi chuckled

"Well, for a start, her last name is not Hyuuga." He replied. Neji grunted. At least he would not have to marry someone from his own family.

The Hyuuga family often married each other. Distant cousins were often "introduced" to one another, and eventually got married. The Hyuugas never had much say in who they were to marry. Parents, who were basically under the control of the leader of the clan, decided for their children most of the time. By doing this, it kept the family bloodline "pure" and "unpolluted", and also prevented the Byakugan from getting into the wrong hands. Even if a Hyuuga were to marry anyone outside of the family, it would have to be a noble one as well, and must have a fairly strong relationship with the Hyuugas.

Neji's grunt seemed to be a satisfying enough reply, so Hiashi sama continued.

"I believe Tenten has no parents or direct family alive, therefore, it should not be too much of a problem for you to ask for her hand in marriage, which I trust she will agree to." Hiashi sama finished, and took another sip of tea. It took him a while for him to finally absorb the information he had just received, but nevertheless, once he had, Neji stared at his uncle in disbelief.

"Wha... WHO?" he sputtered.

"Yes Neji, I would like you to marry Tenten. I believe you do not have any objections to that, do you?" Neji could think of millions of reasons to why he did not want to marry Tenten. There were so many that wanted to come out of his mouth, he could not think of which one to say first. He ended up just standing there, gaping at his uncle.

"Well...?" His uncle pressed.

"No." Neji replied, quickly and firmly. He closed his eyes to wait for a reply.

"Neji..."

"No, I refuse to." Neji said again. He opened his eyes again, to look at Hiashi. His uncle seemed to be slightly annoyed.

"No?" Hiashi repeated. "Then why did you give her part of your eye?" Neji narrowed his eyes, so, it was all because of this after all.

"Because she was my team mate." He replied simply.

"Is it that simple?" Hiashi gazed at Neji with a look that seemed to be able to see through his emotionless shell.

"Yes."

"Alright then Neji, perhaps I should change my words a little. I am not asking you to marry Tenten; I am commanding you to, in the name of the main house." This set Neji off.

"NO!" He bellowed at his uncle, who seemed undisturbed by his sudden rage.

"Main house? MAIN HOUSE? IN THE NAME OF THE MAIN HOUSE? I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT WHAT THE MAIN HOUSE COMMANDS ME TO DO! ALL THE MAIN HOUSE DOES IS FORCE PEOPLE TO DO THINGS, EVEN IF IT IS AGAINST THEIR WILL. YOU JUST WANT ME TO MARRY HER BECAUSE SHE'S GOT PART OF THE BYAKUGAN IN HER AND ALL THAT SHIT! CLAN RULES TO KEEP THE SKILL PURE! WELL IF THAT MEANS US HAVING TO REGRET MARRYING PEOPLE WE DON'T EVEN LOVE, THEN WHAT'S THE POINT? THERE IS NO HAPPINESS IN ANY OF US!" Neji panted, he was in such extreme emotions. Hiashi sama did not look at Neji, but said in a quiet, controlled voice.

"Force you to marry people you do not love? Can you tell me that you do not love her?" Hiashi pressed. Neji opened his mouth, but then closed it again.

"You can't Neji."

"Just... Just get out." Neji sighed, looking away from his uncle.

"Are you commanding me?" Hiashi said, frowning.

"I'm sorry, uncle." He replied. Knowing that his uncle was not going to leave him, he decided to leave his uncle instead. He slid open the door, and walked out.

Neji walked straight to the yard, his heart beating fast after his sudden explosion. He took a deep breath, and felt himself calming down. He looked around the Hyuuga gardens. It was, no doubt, a grand one, but uncomfortably well permed and tidy. The bushes were settled in perfect squares across the sides of the garden. Beautiful flowers grew in designated areas of the ground, and the grass was well kept and freshly cut. Neji enjoyed the training grounds much more than he did of his own yard. There, the grass grew in patches, unlimited and free. Trees grew tall and grand in whichever places they liked. He reminisced the days when he would jump from branch to branch when he was training with Tenten.

_"Neji, screw you and your Byakugan"_ She would growl. Neji would just laugh, as he blocked a few more of the weapons she threw at him.

"Ouch! Watch where you're going!" Neji, who was so deep in thought, had walked into someone.

**END OF CHAPTER 5**

**Chapter 6 will be up very soon, probably during the next few days! Thx for all the reviews! Muah!**

**-xholicx**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Ouch! Watch where you're going!" Neji, who was so deep in thought, had walked into someone.

"Oh... I err... I'm sorry." He stammered, taking a look at who he had walked into. Neji knew who this was. It was Hyuuga Matsuo, the husband of Hyuuga Hiromi. Hiromi was Neji's father's younger sister, making her his aunt, and naturally, Matsuo was his uncle. Neji had never had a close relationship with Matsuo. He saw him regularly in large family meetings and celebrations, but that was it. Nonetheless, through the limited contact he had had with this man, he had seemed to be an agreeable one, and Neji held no grudge against him. Hearing the voice of Neji, Matsuo, who had been studying his own robes to see if anything had been ripped, looked up. At the sight of him, the originally frowning man broke into a beaming face.

"It's alright, Neji." Matsuo smiled, cleaning of his robes.

"I...err... what are you doing here?" Neji asked, not being able to think of anything else to say. The Main courts where the main house members lived was in the middle of the mini Hyuuga village. Other courts surrounded it, and most of the branch families lived there. Although the main court and the sub courts were relatively close, the people in the branch families rarely visited it unless there was a gathering, which was always hosted in the main courts.

"Ah, yes, I was just here to see your uncle, Hiashi." He replied, looking gently at him. Neji nodded, and sighed lightly. He realized Matsuo was smiling at him. Shifting uncomfortably, Neji raised his eyebrows and peeked at his uncle.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Neji." Matsuo chuckled to himself.

"I just thought... for a moment there, you looked just like your father."

"My father?" Neji asked, widening his eyes.

"Well, yes, of course, since you are his son." Matsuo shrugged, still smiling. Neji nodded, laughing a little himself. If his father were here now, he would be able to tell him what to do.

"Is everything alright?" Matsuo asked, realizing Neji's gloomy face. Neji wondered whether he should talk about the conversation he had just had with Hiashi or not, but before he could decide,

"I heard about you marriage arrangements." Matsuo said. Neji raised an eyebrow. Did everyone know about this? Matsuo chortled, and patted Neji on the head.

"I know how it feels. Why, I still remember the day when my father told me I had been arranged to meet with Hiromi. I knew of course, we weren't just going to meet." He chuckled to himself.

"Anyways," he continued, squeezing Neji lightly on the shoulders. "I know how it feels." Neji nodded.

"Thanks." He replied. And with that, his uncle left him, continuing to walk towards the exit of the main courts. Standing there, Neji wondered what he should do next. He could go see Tenten, but that also meant having to see Ai as well, which he was not very keen on. After storming out on her that day, Neji knew it was going to be awkward if he went back. Maybe he could go see Tenten later on in the night, when Ai was not working. He decided to go train in the forest instead, and so, he made his way towards it.

As Neji walked down a street full of cottages, he saw a strange sight as he walked past Shikamaru's house. Shikamaru was standing at his doorstep with... _was that Temari_? Observing the woman, he realized it really was Temari, and she had her arms around Shikamaru. Neji suddenly had an urge to turn around and walk another way, but curiosity brought his legs to keep taking him forward. He was few feet away when he started overhearing their conversation.

"Take care, Shika," Temari smiled, planting a kiss on his lips. Shikamaru merely nodded, and that was when he realized Neji approaching.

"Oh...hi Neji." Shikamaru said, quickly pulling himself away from Temari.

"Hello, Shika... maru." Neji replied, keeping his face straight. At this, Shikamaru turned bright red, and hastily gave Temari a hug before saying,

"Well, bye then."

"Goodbye." She pouted, glaring at Neji for interrupting. And with a swift kick, she was gone.

"What was that?" Neji asked as soon as the woman had left.

"I err... you know, I told her not to... in the streets... kissing and everything... but..." His face was growing redder by the second. Neji gave him a smile.

"Just promise not to tell anyone, alright? Especially Ino... troublesome woman..." Shikamaru looked uneasily to the ground.

"I won't" He promised. "Where is she going, by the way?"

"Oh, Temari? Gaara got an urgent message this morning, something about this bomb blowing up in a street in the Sand Village. So they decided to go back."

Go back? Did that mean...

"Oh, but the medic nin, Ai, or whatever her name is, has agreed to stay, so... don't worry." Shikamaru glanced at Neji. Neji nodded, feeling his heart sink. For a moment, he thought that maybe Ai had left for good.

xxxxxxxxxx

Panting, Neji looked up at the sky. Clouds were moving quickly, and the moon was soon hidden, hiding the forest in complete darkness. Of course, with his Byakugan, Neji could see perfectly well, but he knew that another storm was about to arrive, and he decided that his day's training could end here. He collected his weapons, and made his way home. Sure enough, heavy rain started to fall when he reached the gates of the Hyuuga courts, and by the time he had reached his room, he was already drenched. Neji slid open the door and stepped into it, dripping water onto the wooden floor. He found a note on his table. He unfolded it and read it.

_Dear Neji,_

_I am sorry for the sudden information I had to pass to you this morning, and I regret that you do not stand in the same __point of view as I do. However, I will give you 3 days to decide whether you would like to do this on your own will, or whether I will have to put down orders._

_- Hiashi._

Neji crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it at the fireplace. It burned to ashes in seconds. Fuming, Neji opened the window and let some cool air blow in. After changing into some dry clothes, he walked over to the window and looked out into the rainy sky. He noticed Hiashi's office lights were still on. Wondering what his uncle was doing up so late, he stared at it. Activating his Byakugan was not going to work, because the Hyuuga grounds were placed with all sorts of different safety measures to ensure the privacy of each member of the family. The Byakugan was useless in the Hyuuga grounds. Only Hiashi could break the protection. After staring for 10 minutes or so, Neji noticed the door opening, and a man walked out. Looking closer, he realized it was Matsuo.

"Matsuo?" He called out to him, making his uncle stop in his tracks.

"Oh, hello Neji!" He exclaimed, as he realized it was his nephew.

"What... err... what were you doing in Hiashi's office?" He asked, wondering if he was allowed to.

"Oh, there was a bomb attack in the Sand Village this morning, and we were just talking about that. We have a few Hyuugas living over there," Matsuo replied. Neji nodded, and noticed his uncle's robes were soaked from standing in the rain. Feeling slightly guilty, he scratched his head.

"Umm, do you want to come in? You know, to get away from the rain." He asked.

"Oh..." Matsuo blinked, slightly startled. "That would be nice, thank you." Neji went to open the door, and let his uncle come in. He went over to his closet and grabbed a towel and some dry clothes.

"They might not fit, but it's better than wearing wet ones." He mumbled, passing them to Matsuo.

"Why, thank you!" Matsuo breathed, accepting the clothes. "You know, you're not as bad as everyone says you are, expressionless, emotionless Neji. No wonder you've got so many fan girls," He smiled, giving his nephew a wink as he dried himself off with his towel. Neji turned around as his uncle started to change, and sighed.

"Having fan girls is not as fun as you may think." He murmured gravely.

"Ah, yes, I suppose, you can turn back around now, Neji." He replied.

"But most important of all, Hiashi likes you." Matsuo continued, grinning at him as he tied the sash around his waist. Neji was taller than Matsuo, and the clothes were slightly too large for him.

"Hiashi sama?" Neji asked thoughtfully.

"Yes of course! Why else would he let you live here, in the main house court if he didn't like you?" Matsuo said.

"Well, I always thought it had been because I had no..."

"No parents?" Matsuo interrupted. Neji nodded, frowning.

"So?" His uncle carried on. "Shoichi Hyuuga was an orphan, and he never got to live with the main family." There was a silent pause.

"So you see, Hiashi does like you. You are one of the finest in our clan, and it would be instinctive for him to favour you. Why, you're even better than his own daughters!" Matsuo chuckled. Neji did not know what to say. Sighing, he replied

"Well if he likes me that much, he wouldn't force me to do things I don't want to."

Matsuo's eyes twinkled at Neji as he gave him a soft smile.

"My boy, you know that it is clan rules to obey the main house, the leader of the clan. Every Hyuuga's future partner is decided by the leader of the clan. This has been a rule ever since the beginning."

"Yes, well, men created rules, so we should not let rules take over us. Rules can change."

"Yes yes, I quite agree, but if rules aren't kept, think of the chaos and anarchy we'd all be in."

"But half of these rules are absolute nonsense, if I was the leader of the clan, I would make more reasonable rules." At this, Matsuo roared out in laughter.

"Well, Neji my boy, you are not going to be the leader of the clan, so don't get that idea in your head, even if Hiashi likes you and is.." He shook his head, still chuckling. He gave his nephew a slap on the back and breathed.

"And is what?" Neji asked.

"Well... it can't be _that bad_, having to marry her. From what I know of, you two have a good relationship. Do you not have any feelings for her at all? Not even a little?" Matsuo smiled. Neji had no idea what to say. What did he feel for Tenten? He cared about her more than any other girl he knew. He had always thought it was only because she was his team mate, but he found himself thinking about her all the time. He was always making excuses to be with her, to stand close to her, to protect her. He enjoyed sparring with her. He knew he saw her as something more than a friend. He of course, would not mind marrying Tenten, but the problem was, did _she_ want to marry him? He did not want to force her to do anything she didn't wish to, especially if it was something which would affect the rest of her life. Even more, he didn't want to do it just because his clan wanted him to. Tenten would have to join the Hyuuga clan, where rules were strict and everything was orderly. Tenten was used to being free. She lived by herself, was independent, and he did not know if she wanted such a change in her life. Most of all, he didn't even know if Tenten felt the same way as he did for her. Plus, with her in this current state, he did not want to think about getting married, not now anyway.

"I... I don't know." Was all Neji could say.

"Well, at least it's not a firm no, Neji. You don't dislike her, at the very least." His uncle replied.

"Of course I don't dislike her. I wouldn't have given her part of my eye if I did. Well, how ironic, it turns out this is the whole reason why I have to marry her." Matsuo froze. He looked at Neji, confused.

"Give her your eye?" He asked, frowning.

"Yeah, you might not have heard, but Tenten's eye got injured while she was on a mission, and I gave her part of mine to help her heal it." Neji replied, shrugging.

"Who, Tenten?" Matsuo said sounding confused.

"Yes..." he replied slowly. "That's who we've been talking about the whole time, isn't she? The one Hiashi wants me to marry." Matsuo did not reply. He looked deep in thought.

"Err... Matsuo?" Neji said, peering at his uncle.

"Oh, yes, yes, of course, Neji, Tenten." Matsuo said, snapping out of his haze.

"Err, look. It's stopped raining now, I should be going. I'll umm... send someone to bring you your clothes tomorrow." And with that, Matsuo stood up and quickly left.

"That was strange," Neji thought. Was it something he had said? Shrugging it off, Neji decided he was too tired to think anymore, and he climbed into bed and fell asleep immediately.

xxxxxxxxx

Haruno Sakura was working the late shift that night. She stretched and yawned as she strolled down the hospital corridor. The hospital lights were partially turned off to save energy. The lonely echoes of Sakura's footsteps were the only things audible. It was her co-worker's birthday today, but unluckily for her, she had also been arranged to be on duty. Sakura, feeling sorry for her, offered to swap, which the nurse gladly accepted.

Sakura did not mind, she had nothing to do at home anyway. Plus, she enjoyed the night shifts. It was still work, but she liked the silent hum of the hospital when night fell. During the day, nurses rushed to and from rooms, sick patients, injured children, crying babies; there would be hustle and bustle every where, it was enough to make anyone crazy. But during the night, it was calm, and despite the rumours of ghosts and goblins roaming the white building (like all hospitals had), Sakura enjoyed it better. Tonight seemed like a peaceful night. Sakura had walked around her floor, peeking through the glasses of the rooms once in a while to check if any of her patients needed help, and none of them seemed to do so. She decided to grab a cup of coffee before continuing. She slipped into her office and took off her white lab coat.

As she was pouring hot water into her mug, she suddenly felt something. She froze. What was that? She put down her kettle and strained every single nerve in her body. She felt it again. It was a sudden explosion of chakra coming from somewhere in the hospital. Without even bothering to put her lab coat back on, she burst out of her office and sprinted towards the source, hiding her own chakra flow so she could not be detected. Her heart beat fast as she got closer and closer, and then, she stopped. It was coming from this room. Sakura's heart was literally banging into her ribcage when she realized it was Tenten's room, but the chakra was not Tenten's. It was a foreign chakra, one she had never felt before.

Silently, she slipped out a kunai from under her belt and slowly turned the handle. In one swift motion, she pushed open the door and flung the kunai at the direction of the chakra source, but the opponent was quick. Sakura caught a glimpse of green light coming from the palm of the person slowly being, it seemed like, _absorbed _into Tenten's chest before the hooded figure jumped onto the windowsill and leapt out of the window at the sight of Sakura. Sakura ran to the now open window and could see "it" jumping rapidly from roof to roof and finally out of sight. Running her hands through her silky pink hair, Sakura breathed to calm herself. Who was that, what was he or she doing to Tenten, and why? She flicked on Tenten's light and quickly checked her pulse; it was normal. She felt around her body for any signs of wounds; nothing.

"Think, Sakura!" She screamed inside her brain.

"Where have you read about green lights before? Anything!?" But no matter how much she racked her brains, she could not remember reading or learning about anything which involved a large amount of emerald chakra. Realizing she was starting to panic again, she gulped down air.

"Calm down and think." She told herself. Right, Tsunade...she had to tell Tsunade immediately, she would know what to do. Quickly flicking out Tenten's lights again, she made her way out of the room when she suddenly realized something.

The Hokage was away.

She had left that morning to the Sand Village with Gaara to help out.

Sakura felt awfully alone.

"No, now is not the time to pity yourself!" She thought

Frowning, she thought of who she could contact. There was Neji and Naruto, and...

"Boo" Someone breathed into her ear. Sakura lost control and screamed, but it was quickly muffled with a rough hand which covered her mouth. Another arm snaked itself around her waist and held her still.

"Mpppphhhhhffff" she squirmed underneath the deadly grip and tried to make as much noise as she could, hoping someone would come to her rescue, but it was no use. The arm held her tight. Thoughts burst into Sakura's brain. Was the person back? Did he want to kill her? Who was this? There was something strangely familiar with this voice, yet, she could not make out who it was...

"I'll let you go if you promise not to scream." The voice blew into her ear. It sent shivers up her spine. This was a man, considering the deep tone. Sakura relaxed into the body behind her, and could feel the hand covering her mouth and the one around her waist loosen their grip. Slowly, the arms slipped away from her, and Sakura took the chance. She gathered chakra into her fist and spun around, ready to punch her attacker with all she had. Her eyes widened in shock as she looked into the ruby ones. How familiar they were. With a hypnotizing glance from him, Sakura fainted.

She heard birds singing in a nearby tree. The sun was caressing her gently. Sakura stirred in her sleep. This felt good. What a nice day! She turned around in her bed, and heard leaves crunching beneath her. She sniffed at her pillow. It smelled nice, like a mixture of forest and musk.

Wait a minute... leaves? A pillow which smelled of... _of a man?_ This was not her bed! Sakura's eyes popped open in an instant and she shot up to a sitting position. She gasped at the sight around her. It was morning, and she was in a forest. She had been sleeping on the mossy ground with her head rested on a strangely familiar piece of clothing. She looked around and spotted him, leaning casually against a tree, staring at her. She could not believe it. She must have been dreaming. She pinched herself. It hurt. She was certainly awake.

"S... UCHIHA SASUKE!" She screamed, causing a few birds to take off from their trees. The said man did not give any reply, he just continued standing there.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? ARE YOU TRYING TO KIDNAP ME? YOU SICK BASTARD..." She stood up. Clenching her fists, she walked over to the Uchiha, raising her arm to prepare for another punch. As Sakura's hand became inches from his face, Sasuke suddenly raised his own and caught her flying fist in his palm, as simply as if he had just been thrown a ball in a game of catch. This angered Sakura even more.

"Let... let go of me!" She growled at him, trying to fling her arm free.

"Sakura, what a way to greet an old comrade of yours" He smirked.

"Shut up! I wish had I never had a comrade like you!" She spat at him. Sasuke's smile faltered, his cold eyes still staring into the ones of the pink haired kunoichi in front of him.

"I missed you." He murmured.

"Liar!" She whispered, clenching her teeth. Sasuke laughed.

"Not as gullible as you used to be, aren't you now?" He teased as he leaned closer, inches from her face. She turned away. Now was not the time to let herself think about those lips which were literally centimetres from her face. Those eyes which pierced into her, they seemed to see through her mask, see what really was going on inside of her. He pulled her face to face his, but she refused to look at him.

"Look at me, Sakura." He commanded. Hearing him say her name made her quiver.

"Who do you think you are? Leaving me, leaving _us_ behind without a word, and now you come back and expect everything to be fine? You betrayed us, Uchiha, and you're an S class criminal! I shouldn't even be talking to you right now, and you want me to look at y..." Sakura stopped, because Sasuke had just leaned down and kissed her.

xxxxxxxxxx

Neji found himself being awoken once again with a soft knock on his door. He growled. It was not Hiashi sama again, was it? He got up from his bed and blinked groggily, waiting for the room to come into focus. The knock sounded again.

"Neji?" He heard a girl's muffled voice say through the door.

"Hinata?" Neji cried, puzzled. "What are you doing here?" He asked, as he went over and opened the door for her.

"I... I brought you b...breakfast." She stuttered, blushing at her cousin who was currently topless.

"Oh... thanks." He replied. Noticing Hinata's embarrassment, he hastily grabbed a top and pulled it on. He led his cousin into his room.

"Seriously, Hinata, what brings you here?" He asked, setting himself down on a chair as he motioned for her to sit on the one opposite to his.

"Well... n... nothing really." She stammered. "I just thought m... maybe we could... just t... talk."

"Oh." He said, pouring them both some tea. Why was everyone acting so weird lately? "Is there anything in particular you would like to talk about?" At this, Hinata flushed again.

"N... not really." She stammered.

Silence.

More silence.

Suddenly, Hinata took a deep breath,

"Haveyouheardaboutthemarraigearrangements?" She asked quickly. Startled, Neji blinked at Hinata.

"Excuse me?" He said, frowning at her cousin.

"I... I meant... have you heard about the... the... m... marriage arrangements." She whispered in such a low voice, Neji could just hear her.

"Oh, that, yes." He replied.

"Y... you have?" Hinata looked up at him, looking relieved and happy.

"Erm... yes." Neji nodded. Hinata sighed, smiling.

"I thought you would... are you ok with it, Neji?"

"To be honest, I have no idea, Hinata. It's not that I don't want to, it's just..." He paused. Hinata nodded knowingly.

"I... I felt the same. When my father came to me to tell me I was supposed to marry...y... you, Neji, I felt so nervous! But then I thought; if it is father's plans for me..."

"I'm sorry, Hinata." Neji broke in. "But for a moment there, I thought you said... you were supposed to marry _me_!" He chuckled. Hinata looked confused.

"N... Neji, t...that's what I said! Isn't that what I was s... supposed to say?"

"What do you mean?" Neji asked, baffled.

"N...Neji! Father came to me last week and told me I was to marry you! I... I thought..."

"What? But he came and told me... ugh." Neji did not know what to say to the now frightened Hinata in front of him. What was Hiashi thinking? Hadn't he come and told him he wanted him to marry Tenten? Now why was Hinata telling him he was supposed to marry her?

"Neji? I... is everything alright?" Hinata stuttered. "I... I know I might not be as good as a wife as you would have hoped... b... but"

"No! It's not like that, Hinata! You _can't_ marry me! You like Naruto!" Neji exclaimed.

"N... Neji! I... how..." Hinata had started sobbing lightly now. Great. Neji ran his fingers through his hair, getting more and more confused.

"I... I'm sorry, Hinata, but I've got to go somewhere." And with that, Neji stormed out of the room. _What was_ the man thinking? What did he actually want? Raging, he stomped towards Hiashi's study. He reached it, and just as he was about to rap loudly on it, he heard voices coming from the office. He thought he heard someone say "Neji". He stopped, and strained his ears to listen. He could hear Matsuo and Hiashi talking.

**END OF CHAPTER 6**

**Serious OOC from Neji... I know. **

**Chapter 7 and onwards will be answers instead of questions, and answers to questions you didn't even know existed. **

**heheheh... .**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Uchiha Sasuke did not know what had made him do it, but suddenly, he found himself swooping down and kissing the girl in front of him hungrily. Well, it shut her up for a start, but Sasuke also found those full, plump lips, her glossy pink hair, and her sweet scent of Cherry Blossoms irresistible... or maybe, it was just the fact that it was simply Sakura. _His_ Haruno Sakura.

It had been 5 years since Uchiha Sasuke had walked the streets of Konoha, which had been his home since childhood. To be honest, he had never missed it. He_ couldn't_ miss it. Revenge was all his mind was allowed contain, and he was not going to let anything else distract this ambition. He had succeeded quite well in disregarding his past, but there were two things, or people to be exact, which came back and haunted him unexpectedly in his sleep. One was Uzumaki Naruto, his first and only true friend, although he hated admitting to it. The other person was Sakura.

Sasuke did not know why she bothered him so much. She had never meant much to him, or that was what he thought anyway, but he found himself dreaming of her, and felt... a desire of some sort. However, he had found ways to shake these things off his mind whenever they threatened to come, and the last thing he needed was seeing them again, which was precisely what had happened 2 years ago when both Sakura and Naruto had come barging to Orochimaru's liar claiming to "save" him. After that he found it even harder to clear them off his mind, especially Sakura.

Sasuke had killed Orochimaru not long after seeing his friends, or at least that was what he thought had happened. Everything had just taken a horrible turn, and now, he was on the run. He had been tempted to come back and see them while he was at it, for he found himself imagining what Sakura would look like now that she had grown into a woman. She did not disappoint him when he saw her for the first time in 2 years.

Sasuke could feel the woman against her struggling to break free, but he held on. Finally he felt her starting to give in, and he sensed a rush of satisfaction when she began to return his passion.

Meanwhile, Sakura could not help but realize Sasuke was a very good kisser. She wondered where in the world he could have gotten all the practice from. Inner Sakura yelled at her.

_"Get your lips off that bastard's"_ She shrieked, but she was ignored.

_"He's an S-class criminal! Get off him, NOW!"_ Still ignored

"_He snatched you from the hospital last night!" _That hit Sakura,_ hard_. Quickly, she snapped her eyes open and pushed herself away from Sasuke, gasping for breath. She had totally forgotten about last night, but now she remembered how she had sensed the burst of chakra, the green light... worst of all, she just realized she had just officially skived a whole night's worth of duty hours. Anything could have happened when she was not there. What if a patient had needed her? She turned to look at the reason for all of this.

"Sasuke!" She shrieked.

"What in the world were you thinking, taking me away from the hospital like that? What if a patient needed me? With Tenten in her..." Sakura suddenly halted, narrowing her eyebrows at Sasuke.

"It was you, wasn't it?" She asked.

"It was you who cast the green chakra! That's why you were at the hospital!" Sakura could feel herself heating up. She walked over and snatched the Uchiha by his collar, pulling him down so he could see how angry she was.

"I should have known when Tenten yelled Orochimaru! I was so stupid! What did you do to Tenten? Why is Orochimaru doing this to her?" Still being pulled down, Sasuke gently closed his eyes and sighed.

"It wasn't me, Sakura." He said simply. Sakura loosened her grip a little, but she still refused to let go, she had to be sure.

"What were you doing at the hospital then?"

"I felt the chakra, like you had, so I went to see what was happening. That was when I saw you." Sakura glared at him, trying to read his face. It was impossible. There was no emotion on it.

"Trust me, Sakura." This made her heart melt. She felt her hand letting go of his top.

"How can I?" She said softly. "You betrayed us, you're with Orochimaru now..."

"Not anymore." The Uchiha interrupted. "I've left him" Sakura stood there and gaped at him.

"What?" She asked. This had to be some sort of lie.

"What about your revenge? I thought you needed power! Or have you come to your senses and decided that revenge isn't everything?"

"No." Sasuke replied truthfully. "But I am no longer serving Orochimaru."

There was silence between them.

"Prove it." She said. For a moment, they just stood there. Sakura thought she had been fooled once again, that he was going to turn around and leave, and there was nothing she could do about it. That was until Sasuke lifted up his sleeve. Sakura realized and turned to study the revealed arm. She gasped.

Sakura was a medic nin, and had seen her fair share of injuries. However, nothing compared to this one. This one made her queasy. The whole arm seemed to be rotting. Flesh was peeling off in various places, and some parts were even starting to turn a dark colour. It wasn't one fatal injury, it was many small ones scattered all over the arm, rather like someone had taken a grater and used it against his skin. Blood shone in some of the deeper wounds. It stung even just by looking at it.

"He...Orochimaru did this to you?" Sakura whispered, as she felt her eyes welling up with tears. Sasuke made no reaction, but Sakura knew. She studied it for a moment before taking a deep, quivering breath, and wiped away the tears on her face.

"Take off your shirt." She demanded.

"Hn?" Sasuke replied, letting his sleeve fall over his wound again.

"I said take off your shirt, Uchiha." She blushed a little when she realized her words. Smirking slightly to himself, the Uchiha obeyed. He undid the sash and slipped off his top, revealing a perfectly honed upper body. Sakura could not help but stare a little, but she snapped out of it when she realized the Uchiha gazing amusingly at her. Gathering a little chakra onto her palms, she reached for Sasuke's arm.

"What are you doing?" He asked, pulling the arm away from her

"Trying to heal you, of course!" She replied. Sasuke shook his head.

"It's useless," He frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"It's cursed! Did you really think Orochimaru was going to let me off so easily? It's been like this for weeks now; it's not going to heal." Sakura whimpered at the cruelty of the Snake.

"Well, at least let me stop the bleeding, and wrap it up for you properly." She said softly. The Uchiha hesitated for a moment, but gave in when the pink haired kunoichi grabbed his arm and hovered a glowing white hand over it. It felt slightly tingly at first, but then a warm, comforting sensation ran across it, it was very relaxing. 'So she's become a medic nin now?' He thought to himself.

xxxxxxxxxx

Hyuuga Neji stopped, and strained his ears to listen. He could hear Matsuo and Hiashi talking.

"Very clever, Hiashi." He heard Matsuo snarling.

"Very clever indeed. You had me fooled there, but I guess you never thought I would have had any contact with the boy, eh?"

There was a silent pause between the two of them. Hiashi did not reply.

"Too bad Neji isn't as easy as you would have hoped, or else..." Matsuo laughed. It sent chills up Neji's spine.

"Once the other elders know about Tenten, that a _filthy, disrespectful bitch_ has got a Byakugan in her, then I will finally get what I deserve..."

"You deserve nothing..." Hiashi said flatly.

"Shut up!" Matsuo screamed. He reached over and almost made an attempt to strike the Hyuuga leader, but he received a hard blow over the head before he could do it. He collapsed onto the floor; clearly, he had been knocked out cold. Neji stood, panting angrily, looking at his work of art. _Nobody_ talked about Tenten like that, not when_ he_ was around. With his hand still clenched into a tight fist, he turned to look at Hiashi.

"Hinata... marry... explain..." He breathed. Hiashi blinked at his brother-in-law lying on the floor, then at his nephew, then at the door Neji had literally torn down.

"Before I tell you anything Neji, I think we should find a place to put him," Hiashi glanced at the man sprawled across the floor,

"...and somewhere a bit more private... er... a room with a door at least." He now glanced at the gaping hole where the door had been standing.

"Sorry" Neji apologized. "Reflex." Hiashi managed to give him a chuckle before ordering two guards to take Matsuo away.

"Follow me." He then said, turning to Neji. Neji followed his uncle along corridor after corridor, finally, stopping at large room with an impressive looking wooden door. Hiashi entered it, and motioned for Neji to follow. He realized he was in his uncle's bedroom.

Neji had never been in here before. It was banned to all the people who were not members of the main house. Even Hinata and Hanabi rarely entered this room. Neji felt slightly awed to be standing in such a grand room, but he hid it well.

"Sit down." Hiashi told him. Neji did, and glared at his uncle.

"Well?" He asked. Hiashi sighed.

"How much of the conversation did you hear?"

"Does that matter? Tell me everything. What was it about Tenten Matsuo was talking about... actually, _what was_ _Matsuo talking about?_ And how come Hinata came to me this morning and told me you told her to marry me?" Neji blinked at what he had just said. He found it had horribly sounded like the way Ino or Sakura talked when they had juicy gossip to share. The Hyuuga leader seemed amused as well, but hid it when he felt the infamous glare from the Hyuuga prodigy.

"Neji, tell me, what is the 142nd rule of the Hyuuga Clan's manuscript." Hiashi started.

xxxxxxxxxx

Sasuke put Sakura down as he landed on the roof of the Konoha hospital. She staggered a bit. Anyone would after being carried by the Uchiha prodigy while he traveled full speed for 10 whole minutes. Sasuke seemed quite proud of himself.

"Too fast for you?" He asked her, smirking.

"Shut up, you arrogant freak..." She grimaced. Sasuke chuckled, and just as he was about to leave, Sakura called after him.

"Wait!" She cried. He stopped, but he did not turn to look at her.

"Where are you going?" She asked. He was afraid she'd ask him something like this. He chose to stay silent.

"You're not leaving now, are you?"

For some reason, Sasuke felt slightly pleased. Was she going to beg him to stay?

"Sakura, I can't stay for long." He replied.

"I... well... Naruto would want to see you." She stammered.

"And have him try to beat me up once he sees me? Nah... not that he can, but..."

"I... what about Ino, and... er... Neji and Shikamaru! Don't you want to visit Tenten as well?" She thought frantically of reasons that would make him stay.

"I'm tempted..." he started.

"But not quite. None of these people can convince me quite yet..." He turned to look at Sakura.

"Do _you_ want me to stay?" He cooed. Sakura instantly turned bright red.

"I... of course!" She stammered.

"We'd need you if we went on a mission to fight Orochimaru, you know him more than any of us ever will."

"Oh? Well, if it's not_ you_ who wants me to stay... then I guess..." he turned to leave again, but felt a tug on his sleeve.

"Hey, the least you can do to repay me for helping you with your wound is stay..." She said sternly. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Please?" She tried. Sasuke chuckled. _'Good enough'_. He thought. He turned to jump off the roof.

"UCHIHA, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" She screamed.

"Sakura, even if I am staying, I can't be walking around the hospital roof, can I? After all, I am an S-class criminal..." He grinned at her before jumping off the roof and into the distance. Sakura smiled as she watched him return to the forest.

xxxxxxxxxx

Neji walked through the Hyuuga gardens, thinking of what his uncle had just told him, and sighed. He ran his hands through his hair. Why did all the problems have to come all at once?

"Neji!" He heard someone yell. He turned to see a pink haired kunoichi running towards him. She looked windswept. Behind, a guard was chasing after her.

"Sakura." He greeted.

"I... I'm sorry, Neji sama, I tried to stop her but..." the panting guard said, as they both stopped before him. Neji noticed a bruise starting to rise on the guard's left cheek. Sometimes, Sakura even scared him with her amazing strength.

"It's all right. You can leave." He said, nodding sympathetically at the guard. The guard glanced nervously at Sakura, and left.

"Neji!" She exclaimed, excitement and fear glinting in her eyes.

"I found out what's wrong with Tenten!" Neji's eyes widened.

"What? Where? When? How?" He asked.

"Just now! She's being possessed by Orochimaru!" She cried, avoiding the 'where?' and 'how?'

"What? But..."

"Don't ask, Neji! Trust me! I know what I'm talking about! I've sent an urgent message to the Tsunade. We need to prepare for a mission, we have to find Orochimaru! Now!"

"Sakura, how did you find out all this?" Tsunade asked, narrowing her eyes at her apprentice. It was almost midnight now, and all of the Konoha 11, except for Tenten of course, was crammed inside Tsunade's office. After receiving Sakura's urgent message, the Hokage had rushed back from Suna, demanding an explanation to what was going on. Sakura had just explained everything, and all of the Konoha 11 members were now staring in awe at the two of them. 

Sakura bit her lip. Clearly, she was trying to hide something.

"I...I...I heard." She stammered. She was not a good liar.

"From whom?"

"I... I overheard one of the villagers talking about it!"

"Sakura, I'm sorry to say, but are you sure you can trust a villager? After all, it might just be some sort of rumor someone made up."

"But..."

"Sakura, you know I cannot put the lives of the ninjas of Konoha at stake if I'm not clear of what I am doing. I have to know where you got the source, and it has to be reliable! This mission you're telling me to send you guys on is very dangerous!"

"I..."

"Sakura, tell me the truth." The Hokage said sharply. Sakura hesitated. Should she tell? She took a deep quivering breath. Maybe... just maybe... if she told everyone, Sasuke could be justified! Maybe he could make up for betraying the village?

"It was Sasuke." She finally said.

**Whew, I have finally finished this chapter, thank god! This cha****pter was really hard to write, I was really stuck in many places. I must've written at least 10 different versions to this chapter! Anyways, I know this chapter is kinda confusing. I'm jumping around everywhere, but don't worry, the holes will be filled in the next chapters. Lol. Hope you enjoyed it!**

**-xholicx**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"It was Sasuke." Sakura said at last.

"Sakura, what are you talking about?" Naruto exclaimed, stepping towards the kunoichi so he could see her face. She bit her bottom lip and avoided the narrowing glance Tsunade was giving her.

"Is Sasuke back? Is he here?" Naruto pushed, gripping Sakura hard on the shoulders.

Naruto was not the only person confused. All of them looked around at each other, trying to find reason to what Sakura had just said. Nobody had seen or heard from Sasuke ever since he had left Konoha. The only information they ever got about him were random reports from time to time. They glanced, perplexed at Sakura's words.

Thankfully, the Hokage seemed to be in the same position.

"I'm afraid I don't follow." Tsunade added, frowning deeply. Sakura took a deep breath.

"I have a confession to make." She announced. Everyone stared at her as she started telling them everything that had happened last night and the following morning, skipping some of the unnecessary parts (like the kissing) of course.

_**Flashback**_

_The two remained silent for a long, awkward moment, until finally, one of them spoke up. Surprisingly, it wasn't Sakura this time._

_"Sakura?" He said._

_"Hmm?" She replied distantly, concentrating hard on healing his arm._

_"What was that about Tenten you were talking about?"_

_"Oh." She sighed sadly, and she filled the Uchiha in with everything she knew about Tenten's return from her mission. From the moment she was found on the busy street to the happenings of last night. There was a short pause after she had finished. After wrapping up Sasuke's arm, she sat back to admire her own handiwork. She looked up at Sasuke who had his handsome brows furrowed; he seemed to be deep in thought._

_"Are you ok?" She asked him._

_"Hn..."_

_"..."_

_"So... she cried out Orochimaru during one of her headaches?" Sasuke said slowly._

_"Yes."_

_"And she's forgotten everything?"_

_"She's lost herself."_

_"And green chakra..." Sasuke was mumbling to himself now._

_"Uchiha, do you know something?" Sakura asked, frowning._

_"Well..." he started slowly. He reached for his top and pulled it back on._

_"Before I made an attempt to kill Orochimaru, he was trying some sort of new jutsu."_

_"You made an attempt to kill Oroch..." She stopped when Sasuke raised a hand, indicating for her to stop talking._

_"That's not important." He said impatiently. Sakura scowled, but did as she was told._

_"Alright then, what kind of jutsu?" She folded her arms across her chest. Sasuke reached up to touch the space between his shoulder and neck, feeling the curse seal Orochimaru had left on him._

"_A cursed seal jutsu." He replied._

_"What?" Sakura gasped_

_"He was inventing a new jutsu, one where he could possess a victim."_

_"Possess a victim? You mean... like what he wants to do with you? But..."_

_"No, not like that, Sakura." He interrupted. "Orochimaru wants my body so he can put his soul into it. This jutsu is similar, but all he does is close down the victim's consciousness so he can control his victim." Sasuke laughed sarcastically to himself._

_"Tch... he's waited so many years for this body of mine, I don't think he'd want to waste another 3... he's not a patient man... he wouldn't do to Tenten what he wants to do with me."_

"_Why... why would he want to do that though, control someone...?" Sakura asked, horrified. Sasuke snorted._

"_Well obviously, Sakura, if he got to possess an enemy, he would get all the information he needed, wouldn't he?" _

_"__So... you're saying... Tenten has been possessed by Orochimaru?" The pink haired kunoichi asked with wide eyes. Sasuke nodded._

"_He was trying the new jutsu out, but I never got to see whether he had mastered it or not. When I left him, he was still having problems. His control over his victims were not as strong as he had hoped, and sometimes, if the victim was tough enough, he or she would be able to fight off the curse, or make it weaker. When that happened, he would have to renew the curse, or put in new chakra to regain control." Sakura thought for a moment. Suddenly, it all clicked._

_When Tenten had screamed Orochimaru, it had been one of her brief moments where she was in her own state of mind. She had been trying to tell them all along! Her change of character was all because she had been possessed. Her headaches were all due to the fact she had been fighting back!_

_"So..." Sakura started, eyes getting wider._

_"You're saying Orochimaru attacked Tenten, put the cursed seal onto her, and the person with the green chakra last night was him? He was renewing the curse!?" Sasuke nodded. Sakura started to feel excited. Could Tenten finally be cured now? She had to tell Neji! S he turned to Sasuke, pulling at his collar again._

_"Uchiha Sasuke, get me out of this place and back to the hospital, NOW!" She shouted._

xxxxxxxxxx

Neji woke up at the crack of dawn and immediately made his way towards the hospital. He frowned when he found two masked ANBU guards standing at the doorway of Tenten's room.

"What are you guys doing here?" He demanded.

"Hokage's orders. No one goes in unless they have special permission from Tsunade-sama" One replied.

Neji seethed. Ok, so maybe Orochimaru might be controlling Tenten, but was there really a need to be treating her like a criminal?

"Let me go in and see her." The masked guards looked at one another. Either way, they were finished. They could choose to die now, in the hands of the prodigy of one of the most powerful clans in Konoha, or face the super strength of the Hokage later. Deciding that a few more hours of life was better than none, they stepped aside obediently and the Hyuuga walked swiftly passed them and into the room.

"Tenten" was awake and she was sitting in her bed, back rested on the wall behind her. Her face was blank, and she did not seem to notice the Hyuuga's existence.

"Hello, Tenten." Neji greeted her.

All of those who had been present when Sakura had told of her account had been ordered not to tell another soul about what they had heard, and they were forbidden to talk of anything in front of Tenten, just in case. They could not let Orochimaru know that they had found out.

Neji gritted his teeth. He had to admit, he had officially joined Sakura and Naruto in their clique of Orochimaru haters. Neji had never liked Orochimaru of course. He was a Konoha ninja, and Orochimaru was an S-class criminal. He should, and did not mind hurting or killing him, but obligation was where his feelings ended. However, he now truly despised, loathed Orochimaru. He hated him for causing Tenten the pain and frustration she did not deserve. He hated him for taking her away from him. He found it quite provoking that he was currently looking into the eyes of someone he loved, yet hated in both extremes.

xxxxxxxxxx

Thump.

It had taken one throw of a kunai, and the hare lay lifeless on the floor. It had not felt any pain and had not expected its death. Sasuke jumped off from his branch and landed next to his game. He had been living off berries and fruits for the past few days, and he was starting to get sick of them. Some meat would not hurt. He picked up the dead animal and made his way towards a spot where he could make a fire.

He watched as his dinner cooked above the crackling fire. That was when he felt someone nearing. He smirked to himself. This person had sophisticated control over her chakra, and he knew of only two women which had this sort of skill, and he recognized which woman it was.

Sasuke knew only of one reason to why she would come looking for him. But at the same time, he sensed that she was alone. That was strange. If she was coming to do what he supposed she wanted to do, shouldn't she have brought more people along? He knew, however powerful he had turned out to be during his past years with Orochimaru, his chances of winning her was still less than that of losing, but he was also very curious to what this woman wanted with him. Weighing the possible gains and losses, he finally decided to hide onto a high branch and watch her approach.

Sure enough, after a few minutes of stillness, the blonde came into view. She stopped at exactly the place where he had been sitting a while ago, and gazed at the smoke emanating from the fire.

"Uchiha Sasuke, I know you're around. Get out fom wherever you're hiding." The said man frowned. He hated being ordered around. Plus, technically, he was not a Konoha ninja anymore, and she had no right to command him around like this. He stayed in his place, not moving a muscle.

"Sasuke, I'll knock you out of that tree if I have to." She warned, placing a hand onto the trunk of the tree he was kneeling in. He could feel it vibrate underneath his feet. He grumbled. He could never expect any less from any one of the legendary sannins.

Left with no other choice, he leapt from his position and landed onto the ground with a loud crunching of leaves.

"Tsunade-sama..." He acknowledged the woman in front of him.

"Sasuke... it's been a while." she answered. Sasuke turned his attention back onto the fire.

"I presume Sakura has told you about me then." He said, the fire light reflecting in his pool of deep eyes.

"Yes... and, as she proclaims, everything you've told her about Orochimaru..." She replied. He did not make any reaction to this.

"Sasuke, I need more information."

"Why should you trust me?" he frowned.

"That is why I've come here to see you personally. I don't want to decide on whether to trust someone or not by hearing it from a third person. I want to hear it from you." There was a pause between them.

"And why should I help you?" He finally spoke.

"Well, you have the right not to tell me anything at all, but I shall be in your debt if you do." Sasuke smirked. She knew where she was trying to take him, and honestly, he did like the sound of it; Tsunade, the Hokage of Konohagakure in the debt of him, an S-class criminal who faced death sentence if he was ever to be caught.

He knew he did not really have a choice, and he was lucky the Hokage was even bothering to make him an offer. She could have tortured it out of him if she had wanted to.

"What would you like to know?" He asked.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Don't be ridiculous, let me in!" came a shrill voice from outside Tenten's room. Neji turned to face the door, wondering what was causing all the commotion.

"Do you know who I am? I'm her doctor! The Kazekage sent me here... you'll be in so much trouble... you'll be sorry for this! Just let me in for god's sake! What is with all this protection...? I..." Neji sighed. Great, just the person he was in the mood to deal with.

"I'm warning you! Let me in! Or I'm going to go tell the Hokage, or worse, the Kazekage... you'll be gone from here before you can say..."

Annoyed, Neji rose from his seat next to Tenten's bed and walked over to open the door. The two ANBU guards looked helplessly back at him while Ai, who had been the main source of the racket, stopped her shrieking and looked up at Neji, surprised.

"N... Neji? What are you doing here?" Neji frowned. He had the urge to say "What do you think I'm doing, mastermind?", but decided not to heat things up. He nodded his head at Tenten's direction, indicating the obvious.

"O... Oh, right." She blinked.

"G... Good! Well you can tell these guards here, that I really am Tenten's doctor and I have the right to be in there!"

Although Neji was not planning on confessing his undying love for Tenten at the moment, he still found it quite irritating a third person was in the room. No, he did not mind a third person in the room, but he did mind that Ai, in particular, was in the room. He watched as she looked at the screen of a machine which was sitting next to Tenten's bed. It was beeping from time to time and the screen showed an ever moving line graph which Neji had no idea of what it was supposed to be showing. It seemed to make sense to Ai though, as she frowned and scribbled something down onto her clipboard. She noticed Neji glaring at her.

"Oh, just ignore me, really. Go on with whatever you were doing." She smiled. Neji scowled. Even with determination like his, it was hard to ignore someone who had such an irritating presence. He flinched as Ai banged the door of a cupboard shut. He swore a normal person did not make as much noise.

Finally, He decided to give up when Ai started singing while she worked. He stood up from his chair.

"I'll see you later." He said to the medic-nin.

"Oh, are you leaving already?" Ai asked pleasantly.

"Hn." And he made his way towards the door. He took one last glance at Tenten before he left the room. She stared back at him with her same, emotionless face.

Aoki Ai waited until Neji's footsteps had completely faded before turning to Tenten, who was glaring back at her in pure anger and hatred.

"There's no use looking at me like that, pet. I wouldn't be doing this if you decided to cooperate."

"I've told you once, I've told you a million times! I have no idea what you guys are talking about!" Tenten shot back.

The patient flinched when she felt a quick shot of pain pass through her head.

"We're getting impatient. Tell me the truth."

"I said, I don't know!"

xxxxxxxxxx

Sakura treaded carefully through the forest as she traced her way back to where she had woken up that morning. She had no idea where Sasuke could possibly be hiding, but she decided the forest where they had spent the morning together would be a good place to start looking. It was past midnight, and she was surrounded by total darkness. She was a kunoichi, and she could still make her way with her senses other than her sight, but she still felt slightly uneasy.

"Damn, it's not fair people like Neji and Sasuke get night vision..." She grumbled.

"Where the hell is he?" She asked nobody in particular. S he had not expected any reply, but that was what she received.

"Here." Came the familiar voice as he landed from a tree branch onto the ground behind her. She almost screamed, but she swallowed it, hoping he had not notice her petrified face in the dark. But then again, hadn't she just cursed him for having night vision?

"Missing me already?" Sasuke smirked, as he studied the pink haired kunoichi in front of her with glowing red eyes. To Sakura, they were like the eyes of a demon flaming at her in the dark. She gulped, remembering the conversation she had had with the Gondaime on the night of her confession.

_"Sakura... do you trust Sasuke?"_

She had nodded undoubtedly, confident that she had made the right choice. However, the fact that none of the night guards had found anything or anyone suspicious on the night Sakura had met Sasuke, the said "cursed seal" that Orochimaru should have left was nowhere to be seen on Tenten's body, and that Sasuke was an S-class criminal and where his loyalties lied were still unknown did not help the situation at all. Even she was starting to doubt herself now. She decided the only thing she could do at the moment was look for Sasuke and have him answer all the questions everyone was pounding onto her.

"Sasuke, I need more information." She said firmly. He smirked.

"Your teacher said the same thing to me this morning."

"She... She came to you?" The pink haired kunoichi stuttered. Sasuke remained silent.

"Sasuke... you promised... you didn't... did you?" The Uchiha prodigy continued not to speak as he leaned his back against a tree. Sakura ran up to him and looked at him angrily.

"What did you tell her, Uchiha!?" She shrieked.

"I told her everything I told you..."

"Except for...?" Sakura pleaded hopefully. Sasuke avoided her gaze and made no reaction to her question.

"No... you didn't... You didn't! I told you not to!" Sakura thought she had never felt so frustrated in her life. Her body started to shake involuntarily, and tears started to well her eyes.

"Why? Uchiha, why did you have to?" She sobbed. Sakura had had enough with the one sided conversation.

"ANSWER ME!" She shrieked.

"She offered me something." He replied.

"What could she possibly offer you, you idiot! What could be worth it!?"

"She said I could stay."

"Is that it?" Sakura asked. This was defiantly not the response Sasuke had expected from her.

"_Is that it? _You exchange her for a chance to stay? I can't believe you!"

"Sakura, either way, there will be sacrifice. Do you really think everyone who will be sent to kill Orochimaru would come back alive? I..."

"Well at least we tried! We tried for our friend, our companion! We would do the same for you, Sasuke!" The Uchiha clenched his fists at these words.

"I should have known the word companion means nothing to you. I should have known it had never meant a thing to you ever since you decided to leave! You have no idea how important she may mean to someone, just like you had no idea how important you meant to me!" And with that, Sakura ran.

At first, she had no idea where she was going. All she wanted to do was be as far away from Uchiha Sasuke as possible. She ran wildly, punching anything, mostly trees, which came in her way. This seemed to help her vent her anger, and after a while, she found herself calming down and thinking logically again. She realized the first thing she needed to do now, was to find her teacher.

xxxxxxxxxx

"If you find anyone involved, arrest him and bring him back. Understood?" Neji, Naruto, and Shikamaru nodded. They were currently in the Tsunade's office, listening to a mission briefing. It was Neji's first mission ever since he had left the hospital, and he was glad there was something to keep his mind off all the things which had happened lately.

"Good luck then, I'll see you..."

BANG! The door of the office exploded open and a frantic looking Sakura burst in.

"Tsunade-sama, please, let me explain, Tenten is..." She froze when she realized her teacher had not been alone in her office.

"Oh...hello... she said timidly, glancing at the three men in front of her.

"Sakura, I was having a meeting just now, I do not..."

"Wait." Neji cut in.

"What about Tenten?" He asked. Naruto and Shikamaru turned to peer at her curiously as well. Nobody in the room spoke as the tension built up.

"Is something wrong with Tenten?" Neji pressed. Sakura bit her lip.

"Sakura chan, what's wrong?" Naruto asked, leaning down to look at her.

The Hokage sighed behind her desk.

"I intended for you guys to find out after a decision was made... but i guess now, I don't have much choice, knowing Neji would never let me off of this." She said

"After hearing Sakura's story, I went to look for Sasuke." She started.

"And as I had suspected, Sakura had left quite a large wad of the story untold."

_**Flashback**_

"_Uchiha Sasuke, get me out of this place and back to the hospital, NOW!" S__akura shouted._

"_What are you going to do?" he demanded._

"_Remove the curse, of course! What else!"_

"_Sakura, this cursed seal jutsu is not an ordinary cursed seal jutsu."_

"_Whatever! If I'm not strong enough to handle it, Tsuande will be! Someone has got to be!"_

"_No, Sakura, you don't understand. There is no way you can remove this jutsu."_

"_W... what do you mean there's no way?"_

"_The only way to deactivate the jutsu is if the person who casted the jutsu decides to deactivate it. A third person cannot deactivate it by force... unless either one of the party dies."_

"_What does that mean?"_

"_In your case, it can only be deactivated if you kill Orochimaru, which is close to impossible, or..."_

"Or what?" Neji asked when Sakura paused. The pink haired kunoichi did not answer.

"Or what?" He turned to the Hokage and asked again. Tsunade sighed.

"Or... if we kill Tenten." She answered.

**END OF CHAPTER 8**

**I know tha****t by now, you will probably have all these "why don't they just…", or "why can't they just…", or "why do they have to…" popping into your brains. I'll get to those, don't worry, so don't ask, or you'll spoil it!!**

**This will be the last chapter of this summer. Next update will be around ****Christmas… hopefully.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

_**4 Days**__** Ago**_

_A __shot of dry lightening cut angrily across the sky, glowing up the office in an explosion of white light in a sudden burst. The deafening crash caused the many books on the wooden shelves to rattle; but the two men in the room did not even wince. They were used to it by now. Konohagakure had been experiencing some of the most violent storms this year._

_"...and 3 Hyuugas were killed in the bomb attack in Sunagakure this morning." Matsuo reported in his deep guttural voice._

_"Any idea of who planted it?" Hiashi asked in a more brittle tone. His brother-in-law shook his head._

_Outside the office, the sound of rain started. It commenced as a light patter, but built up slowly until it became static. A bright flash of lightening sparked across the room again, followed by an ear splitting grumble seconds later. Hiashi sighed._

_ "Funeral dates?"_

_"All 3 Hyuugas will hold their funeral two weeks from now. Their families are hoping you will attend."_

_ "__I'll be there."_

_Matsuo bowed lightly. _

_ "__If there is nothing else, I should be leaving now." He said as he turned towards the door. _

_Hi__ashi massaged his temple jadedly. He had not been sleeping well for the past few days for many reasons. His eyes were stinging and red from lack of sleep. He reached for his cup, but accidentally knocked down a stack of papers instead._

_ "__Oh... what..." he said under his breath as he rose from his desk to pick up the scattered papers. Matsuo noticed, and turned to help the Hyuuga clan leader._

_ "Thank you, Matsuo." __Hiashi stated gratefully._

_ "My pleasure..." Matsuo replied as he gathered some documents into a neat pile. He continued to tidy up the jumble, but hesitated when he picked a particular piece. Something in the title caught his eye. Reading it, he frowned._

_ "What's this?" Matsuo asked curiously as he studied the title which announced that it was a 'Hidden Village of Konohagakure Marriage Application Form'. He moved his eyes downwards to read the 'Male Applicant' as 'Hyuuga, Neji'. Meanwhile, the 'Female Applicant' remained blank._

_ "Ah..." Hiashi said softly as he noticed what Matsuo was holding._

_ "Is Neji getting married?" Matsuo asked, raising both brows._

_ "...Yes." His brother in law replied honestly._

_ "Oh, well, congratulations. Who is the lucky girl?" Hiashi paused for a moment._

_ "Hinata. My eldest daughter." He finally stated._

_ "They would make an excellent couple." Matsuo agreed. He looked up at the clan leader and smiled._

_ "I would do the same if I were you." His voice rose ever so slightly._

_ "here are many other members of the clan who are full of talent, and, I must say, would make a brilliant clan leader if it weren't for _the rules..._ Neji being one of those people. Don't you agree?" Even though Matsuo was smiling, his eyes sparked dangerously, as they pierced into the Clan Leader._

_ "Well, I guess the only way is to marry him to your daughter then, eh?" Matsuo chuckled._

_ "Yes, thank you, Matsuo." Hiashi nodded wearily. "Good night." Matsuo pursed his lips into a thin line and stood up, lifting the hood of his cloak onto his head._

_ "Sleep well, you need it." Matsuo suggested. He opened the door and the instant increase of the sound of falling rain rang throughout the room. It became muffled again as Matsuo slid the door shut and made his way out of the main Hyuuga courts. _

_Hiashi closed his eyes and sighed. He was glad that __earlier, when he was filling in the form, Matsuo had knocked just as he was about to write 'Tenten' onto the 'Female Applicant' area. He had searched every female Hyuuga he could think of in his head when Matsuo had questioned him, and finally, he decided saying his daughter's name would be the best choice. He could sort the rest out later. _

_Little did he know his nephew was watching his office through his room window._

_ "Matsuo?" A voice called to him. Matsuo looked around and peered through the heavy curtain of rain to see Neji looking out at him through the window of his dimly lit room._

_ "Neji...!" He said, slightly shocked._

_ "What...err... what were you doing in Hiashi's office?" His nephew asked._

_ "Oh, there was a bomb attack in the Sand Village this morning, and we were just talking about that. We have a few Hyuugas living over there," Matsuo replied. Matsuo watched as the Hyuuga prodigy peered at him for a moment before saying_

_ "Umm, do you want to come in? You know, to get away from the rain." He asked._

_ "Oh..." Matsuo blinked, slightly startled. "That would be nice, thank you."_

xxxxxxxxxx

The man threw back his head and gave a shrill, high pitched laugh. His tart, velvety voice reverberated through the dark stone walls. Neji and Naruto glanced at each other, mystified by the man's sudden explosion while Shikamaru continued to possess their captive with his shadow.

"Say, pretty," it took Neji a while to realize the man was referring to him.

"Aren't you a Hyuuga?"

Neji raised an eyebrow, but did not make a reply.

"We're the ones asking the questions here, not you." Naruto shot at him.

"Aww, I was just askin'!" The man smirked casually, eyes still locked on Neji.

"Cause' you know, I've been hearing stories about your clan, and; isn't there a Hyuuga Neji somewhere in there?" There was something intimidating and nightmarish by the way he studied with his eyes. He seemed absolutely calm for someone held captive. Naruto sniggered.

"You've heard about him now, have you? Well,_ he is_ Hyuuga Neji, so you better be careful."

"Naruto, you talk too much." Shikamaru stated. The man gave another low chuckle.

"Oh, so you're Hyuuga Neji?"

"Hn." Neji replied.

"You've got a problem with that?" Shikamaru asked, annoyed.

"Oh, no, not at all" He replied, grinning. "Just..." he turned back to look at Neji.

"You're just as pretty as advertised... maybe even prettier." He gave Neji an unnerving gaze with a chilling smile. Naruto exchanged agitate looks with Shikamaru, but Neji looked back at the man, unmoved.

This man who worked by the name of 'T', was one of the most violent and merciless thugs in the mob Neji, Shikamaru and Naruto had been sent to obliterate in the Hidden Village of Sound. His high, but not high enough rank was perfect for a time like this. He held just enough information, and was just unprotected enough to capture and yank information out of. Neji shifted his position so that he was now face to face with T. It was the first time he saw him clearly. He, unlike the rest of the ruffians Neji had considered capturing beforehand, looked lean and weedy. His grassy olive hair sat messily on his head. He had dark circles under his restless, bloodshot eyes. He seemed to look at everything with his chin down and eyes looking upwards, and his smile was unsettling and disturbing.

"Where is it?" Neji commanded.

"Where's where?" T giggled mockingly.

"Your headquarters."

"What was that again, pretty?"

"Stop messing around." Shikamaru warned. He reached for thin air on the ground next to him. Neji soon realized that T, which was forced to do exactly what Shikamaru was because of the jutsu, had done the same thing. However, instead of thin air, T been forced to take hold of a kunai.

"Oh, what are we doing with a knife now?" He cackled. He stopped abruptly, as Shikamaru had made him take the knife up to his throat in one swift motion.

"Say it, or I make you slit your own throat." Shikamaru said cautiously.

"Ah... now then..." T whispered. He was uncontrollably sinking the blade of the kunai into his skin. A bead of blood squirmed out and trickled down into his shirt.

"Don't kid yourselves. You need my information." he chuckled.

"We need to know where your headquarters are. Now we can do this the easy way where you tell us, or... we can kill you now and bury you next to all the people you killed. Then we can capture another one of your brainless friends and ask him instead." Shikamaru said. This seemed to have an affect on T, as the colour started to drain from his face.

"What do I get in exchange of the information I give you?" T asked in his silky voice.

"I don't think you're in much of a position to be bargaining right now." Neji commented.

"Will you spare my life if I tell you?"

The three Konoha ninjas looked at one another.

"We'll think about it." Neji replied him. T took a deep breath.

"If you walk straight down the main street in town, you'll come across a bar called Sen." T started.

"Inside, you'll see the bartender. Just go up to him and say 'Magic Martini' and he'll let you through."

"Don't lie." Shikamaru said, sinking the kunai even deeper.

"I'm not, I swear."

Shikamaru glanced up at Neji, and Neji nodded.

"Well, aren't you going to let me go?" T asked, starting to panic a little when he saw the two men exchanging looks.

"Wait..." Neji stopped Shikamaru. T sighed in relief.

"Thank you, gorgeous." T tittered.

"Neji, you're not planning on keeping him alive, are you? You know he will..." Naruto started, confused, but Neji raised a hand, and he stopped talking.

"Before we finish here," Neji turned back to T.

"What do you know about Orochimaru?"

Shikamaru gave a chuckle in the shadows. T tilted his head slowly and showed his yellowing teeth.

"Orochimaru sama, eh? I haven't heard from him in a while." T replied.

"And what was the last thing you heard?" Neji pushed.

T gave a yawn and stretched before answering.

"He left for Suna half a year ago with Arisa and Karasu. I haven't heard from him ever since." T said slickly.

"Who are Arisa and Karasu?" Naruto piped in.

"Oh, haven't you heard?" T grinned maliciously. The three ninjas looked at one another. T gave another laugh.

"Arisa and Karasu are Orochimaru's favourites. He sends them on the most important missions. They're damn loyal to him as well."

"What do they look like?" Neji went on.

"Just as lovely as you, Hyuuga" T laughed. Shikamaru warned him with the kunai again.

"I'm telling you, you better stop the chit chat or else..."

"Hey, hey, like I said, they're Orochimaru's little darlings, you know? They don't show themselves much."

"So you haven't seen them before?"

"Once or twice maybe, but I couldn't make much of their faces under those cloaks they always wear. I just know Arisa's a tufty, you know, short hair; and Karasu has a lovely long mane, just like you pretty." He grinned at Neji.

"Anything else?" Neji asked, ignoring the grin. T clicked his tongue casually.

"Nothing really, just that they're some high quality kunoichis, if you were planning on fighting 'em..."

"Wait, you mean, they're_ girls_?" Naruto exclaimed.

"Hell yeah they're girls, and with some serious temper as well. Once my partner went up, just to have a chat, you know? Didn't even get a chance," T chuckled at his memory.

"The next thing he knew, he was smacked right there, on the head." T pointed at his temple. He shook his head and laughed.

"He was a bit coo-coo after that." The three exchanged incomprehensible looks.

"Well, are you gonna let me go or not?" T asked, slightly impatient.

"And have you snitch on us? Ha ha, sorry, but we can't let that happen." Naruto mocked.

"Wow... w... wait a minute. Didn't pretty just say you were gonna let me go?" T started to panic again.

"We said we were going to think about it." Neji replied.

"H... hey, that wasn't part of the deal! I... I'm gonna kill you for this, I will!"

"Not if we kill you first." Shikamaru stated. "Plus, like 'pretty' said..." Shikamaru glanced up at Neji and smiled sheepishly.

"You're not in the position to be bargaining right now.

"B... but..." Neji watched as the man fought and screamed in front of him, as he uncontrollably lifted the kunai up to his throat again. He looked at Neji pleadingly.

"C... c'mon, gorgeous! I told you everything I knew!"

"And you killed hundreds of innocent civilians. You raped their wives and daughters, and you took away their food and left them in hunger." Neji shot back.

"I... I..."

Neji gave Shikamaru a nod, and the shadow user dragged the metal across T's throat. He fought frantically for life, but it was useless.

"And one more thing." Shikamaru said to the dying man in front of him.

"You betrayed your friends just to keep yourself alive, but we still appreciate you for telling us where your secret hideout is." T replied with a choking, coughing noise.

Shikamaru waited until he was sure his captive was dead before retracting his shadow.

"Well..." Naruto said, half in awe and half in relief.

"Shall we make our way to the Sen?"

xxxxxxxxx

_ "Or... if we kill Tenten..."_

This was the only thing that Neji's brained contained; the voice of the Hokage saying_ "...we kill Tenten."_

"Neji..."

_ "...we kill Tenten."_

"Neji!"

_ "We don't have a choice..."_

"NEJI!"

"Huh, what?" The Hyuuga replied, escaping from his haze.

"It's my turn to keep watch now, go and get some sleep." Shikamaru replied him as he sat down across from his team mate.

"Hn..." Neji continued to stare at the flickering flames of the fire they had made earlier. Shikamaru peered at him through it.

It had been hours after the three had raided the secret hideout of the famous criminal organization. They had fought uncompromisingly, killing everyone they had found inside. They were now on their way back to Konoha, in changed clothes while their blood stained ones were crammed into their bags. It would take them a day or two to get back, and they had decided to camp next to the river.

"We've got lots of travelling tomorrow, go and get some rest." Shikamaru suggested.

"I'm alright." Neji replied. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at his team mate, but decided not to argue.

"Alright then."

The two of them sat silently for a few minutes.

"Ino told me about Hinata..." Shikamaru stated. Neji closed his eyes and frowned.

"What do you plan to do?"

Neji sighed into his laced hands. He paused, then said

"I can.t. She'll understand."

Neji almost did not react in time, but he felt the anger and the power seconds before the punch flew at him, and he dodged perfectly, leaving a staggering Naruto to keep his balance.

"You're awake." Neji stated. He knew he had been, with the absence of his usual thunderous snores.

"How could you say that?" Naruto roared angrily.

"You have no idea how upset she was when she came to me, have you? You made her feel like a moron!"

"Seems to me, you two would make a better couple than me and her ever would." Neji remarked.

Naruto's face flushed, but Neji wasn't sure whether it was because of anger or something else.

"Oi, Naruto, calm yourself!" Shikamaru called.

"How do you expect me to do that?" Naruto exclaimed.

"This arrogant bastard thinks Hinata isn't good enough for him! Well, I tell you what, Hinata deserves anything much better than you!"

"Naruto, sit down, you don't even know the full story." Shikamaru reasoned.

"Wh... What do you mean...?"

"Stop being troublesome and sit down. Neji will tell you when he wants to."

"Neji, what's going on? Tell me!" Naruto leaned into the Hyuuga anxiously. Neji continued to stare at the fire.

"Neji!" Naruto begged. Neji pushed the blond off him impatiently.

"Do you guys know who Hyuuga Matsuo is?" Neji started. Shikamaru thought for a moment.

"Wasn't he at your birthday party last year? The one who helped me carry Kiba to the gates when he got so drunk he couldn't walk?" The shadow user asked. Neji nodded.

"Which one? I don't remember!" Naruto looked from one to the other.

"Of course you don't remember; you were drunk out of your mind." Shikamaru said. "To be honest, you were nearly as troublesome as Lee, and he was pretty drunk as well..." he shook his head. "Anyways, what about him?"

"He wants me and Hiashi dead."

"I beg your pardon?"

"He wants me and Hiashi dead." The Hyuuga repeated.

Naruto almost screamed while Shikamaru merely widened his eyes.

"WHAT? WHY?" The blonde rang his voice so loudly; both Shikamaru and Neji flinched slightly.

"Alright, Naruto. We're here; we can hear you... anyways..." Shikamaru turned back to his team leader.

"I never would have guessed..." he said in awe. "I didn't notice at all... he seemed alright when he helped me carry Kiba..."

"Even Shikamaru didn't notice? There must be a mistake!" Naruto exclaimed. Neji shook his head.

"I heard with my own ears. Matsuo is just a good actor, that's all."

"But why does he want you and Matsuo killed?" Naruto pushed.

"Because he wants to be the leader of the Hyuuga clan."

Shikamaru widened his eyes to a whole new level while Naruto gaped at the Hyuuga. Both were speechless.

"But... that's not possible... is it? I mean, I always thought only the main branch could be the leaders..." Shikamaru asked, concerned.

"Most of the time, it isn't... but it could happen under some special circumstances."

"Why? What circumstances?" Naruto demanded.

"Under circumstances where Hiashi and I die."

"Yes, I know that, you just told me! But what does this have to do with Hinata?"

"Complicated clan rules." Neji mumbled. There was something final about his tone, and when a Hyuuga was finished talking, he was finished talking. Shikamaru and Naruto did not dare ask anymore questions. The blonde flopped back down onto the grass, while Shikamaru sighed with his usual 'I can't be bothered' face, and stared once again into the fire.

The next day, they had woken up and continued their journey exceptionally early, mainly because Neji was in a rush to get back. Both made no objection, they were keen to get home anyway.

They arrived in Konoha at around midday.

"Finally home!" Naruto stretched and yawned. He started his way towards his apartment, but stopped when he realized both his team mates did not follow. He looked questioningly at them.

"I'm going the other way." Shikamaru said. "I've still got some chounin exam meetings I've got to get to" Shikamaru pointed towards the right.

"Briefing with the Hokage." Neji said simply as he nodded towards the left.

"Alright, leave me then!" Naruto exclaimed. Shikamaru yawned and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Neji nodded and was gone in a flash.

"I didn't really mean..." Naruto grumbled.

Neji arrived at the Hokage tower within minutes. He landed silently at a balcony on the highest floor and walked towards the Hokage's office.

"Neji." The Hokage greeted when she saw the Hyuuga prodigy walk in.

"Hokage sama." He bowed.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Neji sat inside the round, sunlit room. Despite all the open windows and the occasional casual breeze that flowed throughout the office, it was a hot and sticky day, and not even the indoors was comfortable. He sat still as he felt a drop of sweat trickle down the tip of his nose.

Suddenly, the door burst open, and a voluptuous woman walked steadily into the room.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Neji. I was just in a meeting." The Hokage said as she took a seat behind her desk. The Hyuga lowered his head.

"The country should always be your first priority." He replied.

"Indeed" The Hokage nodded. "In fact, I was just having a meeting about something very closely related to you." Neji frowned and waited. Did she mean…

"It was a hard decision, and a lot of the elders didn't like the idea of it. But it's been decided; we're sending people on a mission to assassinate Orochimaru."

Tsunade noticed the end of the Hyuga's lips turn slightly upwards as he nodded thankfully. It was a long time since she had seen him smile.

"Of course," she continued, "The actual mission will have to be while. I still have to make out a list of who will be on the team and how it will happen and such. Everything will have to be perfectly spot on."

"I understand" Neji replied.

"Good. Now, in the mean time, I would like you to go home and rest. I will inform you of any new updates." The Hyuuga nodded. He placed his mission report onto the Hokage's desk and stood up. He paused.

"How is Tenten?" He asked. Tsunade narrowed her eyes.

"More or less the same. Why don't you go visit her?"

The Hyuuga nodded and grunted in reply. As he left, however, he did not make his way towards the hospital, but towards the Hyuga village instead. There was something he needed to do first.

A maid blushed and bowed lowly as he made his way in the Branch Families' Courts. Neji had only been in the Branch courts a few times. The houses were smaller and simpler, but somehow, Neji liked it better this way. As he walked, he noticed there were no signs on the front of the houses, which made it impossible for him to tell who lived in which. He noted a bare footed and balding gardener working in the grass and walked over to him.

After telling the gardener his destination, the gardener stood up from his spot and started padding quickly and silently off the grass and onto the stone floor.

"Please follow me, Neji sama" he bowed.

The gardener brought Neji through the courts, turning abruptly into some corners. Along the way, Neji noticed other members of the Hyuga family; some of which he barely knew. Many of them had fled their houses in the hot weather for a walk in the gardens or to enjoy the outdoors. They looked curiously at the Hyuga prodigy as he followed the gardener. Finally, they stopped in front of a white house with a sandy colored roof.

"Hai." The gardener bowed, and took off as suddenly as he had stopped, leaving Neji alone at the gates of the mansion.

The house was smaller compared to the main courts' mansion, but it was still a beautiful one. Neji assumed this was what he had been looking for, and walked up the small stone steps which led to the front doors. He knocked once and waited.

A few seconds later, Neji heard quiet footsteps nearing. The door slid open and a young servant girl in clean, white linen stood there. At first, the girl frowned, not knowing what was happening. However, she stared into Neji's face, and it didn't take her long before she realized who she was looking at. Her eyes widened, and she clapped her hands to her mouth to hide a muffled squeak. Flustered, she whipped around and sprinted back into the house, leaving an amused and annoyed Neji standing in the doorway.

Neji peered into the house through the open door. The walls and furniture were mostly white, with soft shades of wooden brown in the details. The sun blazed through the open windows, making the house very bright and clean. A few minutes later, Neji heard an older woman's voice and a few footsteps from inside of the house.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, Yuki. You shouldn't have run off like that." He heard the woman say.

"I… I'm sorry, Hiromi sama." A younger girl replied.

A tall, beautiful woman also in white showed up at the door. She had long, sleek, dark hair, and the famed white pupils of the Hyuga family. In her arms, she carried a toddler, who dozed lazily on her shoulder. The servant girl, Neji assumed was called 'Yuki'. The name suited her well with her timid personality and pale, white skin. She stood half hidden behind the woman with her head lowered. Neji wondered if he really was that intimidating.

"Neji" The woman smiled when she saw him. "Do come in." Neji bowed at his aunt and followed her inside the house. She brought him into the living room.

"Have a seat." She waved at a sofa as she took a seat on the one opposite to it. The servant girl had followed them, but she never lifted her head.

"Yuki, please go and fetch us something to drink." The servant girl blushed lightly again and quickly walked out of the room.

"Please forgive her. She's new, and she's very shy." Hiromi apologized. In her arms, the child started to stir. He lifted up his head and rubbed his eyes with his tiny hands.

"It's alright." Neji replied, studying his little cousin as he blinked around at the environment around him. "So… this is Hayao?" he asked, watching the toddler squirm about in his mother's arms.

"Yes, this is my son." Hiromi smiled gently. "He just turned 1 last month."

Neji watched in amazement as his cousin successfully escaped his mother's arms. He crawled around on the carpeted floor. His arms and legs were still very clumsy, but he slowly made his way towards Neji's side of the sofa. He stood up on his chubby, wobbly legs and held on to the sofa for support. He lifted his head and looked at Neji curiously with his huge, round, lavender eyes. Neji looked back at him, not knowing what kind of expression to give. Suddenly, the child smiled and giggled, showing the two front, and only teethes in his mouth.

Hiromi chuckled.

"My, Neji, you do have a thing with children. He usually cries when he meets strangers." Neji felt himself blush lightly.

Yuki entered the room again with a platter of cold tea and snacks. She carefully placed them onto the table in between them and went to stand in a corner of the room. Hiromi picked up a glass and sipped the tea politely.

"My husband talks about you a lot." She said, looking at him.

"Hn?" Neji replied. Hiromi nodded.

"In fact, he told me he's been expecting you"

Neji didn't know what to say.

"I… I'm sorry?" he said, looking down at his cousin again.

Neji had always liked Hiromi. She was his father's younger sister, and she had always been a very kind and gentle woman. He never expected he would be having such a conversation with her.

"I hope you understand that…" he started again, but his aunt stopped him.

"Neji, I've withdrawn myself from the politics of this family the day I married Matsuo." She said. "My job now is to be a supportive wife to my husband and a good mother. So please, don't be sorry. You have nothing to be sorry about." She smiled as she watched Hayao take a handful of Neji's robe and started chewing it.

"Hayao sama!" Yuki gasped in her corner. She quickly walked over and lifted the toddler. Hiromi laughed.

"Yuki, could you please take him to his room?" The servant girl nodded and carried the drooling baby out of the room. After the footsteps of the servant had disappeared, Hiromi turned back to Neji.

"Matsuo should be back soon." She said. "He's left for a small mission, but he should be back around now."

As if answering her call, the front door clicked followed by Matsuo's voice.

"I'm home." He called. Hiromi rose from her seat and disappeared to greet her husband.

"Welcome back, darling." Neji heard her say. "Actually, there's someone here to see you." Neji heard Matsuo's heavier footsteps as he appeared at the doorway of the living room.

"Neji." He heard Matsuo say lightly. There was no hint of anger or hate in his voice. Neji turned to look at his uncle. He still had a slightly purple eye from where he had punched him a few days ago. Matsuo removed his coat and handed it to his wife.

"Shall we go talk in my office?" He asked.

"No, I think we should talk here." Neji replied flatly. Hiromi and Matsuo glanced at one another.

"Very well. We shall talk here then." He agreed.

"I'll go and put these in you room…" Hiromi suggested as she reached for her husband's belongings, but this time, her nephew stopped her.

"No, I think you should listen to this as well."

"But Neji…" his aunt said.

"Please stay." Neji said again. Hiromi glanced at her husband, who nodded. They both sat down on the sofa opposite to Neji. They remained very quiet for a while. Finally, Matsuo spoke.

"I assume you've come to ask me some questions?" He said. Neji did not reply. Matsuo sighed heavily.

"Neji, I want you to know that I've always liked you, and I've always been very proud of having a nephew like you. In fact, my son, Hayao…"

"I don't want to hear your fancy talk." Neji grunted. Matsuo stopped.

"It's not fancy talk, Neji. It's true. That's why I'm doing this. This is not only for me; it's for all of the branch family, especially you, Neji."

"What are you talking about?" Neji asked suspiciously.

"You see, Neji. You and I are very alike in many ways you may not even know. Did you know that I had a brother?" Neji glanced at Hiromi, and she nodded.

"However" Matsuo continued. "He's not alive anymore. Do you know why?" Neji remained silent. Matsuo folded his arms in front of his chest and laughed lightly through his nose.

"Does the name Hyuga Hayao ring any bells?"

So it wasn't coincidence Matsuo's son happened to have the same name as one of the characters from the most famous stories in the Hyuga clan.

Neji had learned of this from his father, who told it to him occasionally. It had happened many years ago, before Neji and Hinata were born. One of the main family's children had been diagnosed with a deadly heart disease which could not be cured. The only way to save the child was if someone gave up their own heart to replace the sick child's. Of course, that would also mean the death of the donor, which normally, would not have been accepted as a solution. Nevertheless, the main house family and Hyuga elders refused to give up. Every single person in the clan was tested, and results showed that only one person in the whole clan had the appropriate organ to give. It was 10 year old Hyuga Hayo, who was then a member of the branch house. The ending of this was calculable.

The older man saw the prodigy in front of him stiffen, and he almost smirked.

"So you have heard about it, haven't you?"

No answer. Matsuo took that as a yes.

"So you see, we are both very alike, Neji. We've both experienced watching our loved ones sacrifice themselves and die. But for what? For useless people like Hinata." He spat. Neji fumed.

"Hinata isn't useless." He frowned. Matsuo shook his head in a pitying way which extremely annoyed Neji.

"I see you've already been thoroughly brainwashed by _those people_." He sneered.

"Remember when I asked you why the Main house lets you live in their courts? Not because they have a soft spot for you, Neji. It's because you're strong. Too strong, they need to keep an eye on you, and bring you onto their side along with that." Neji glanced over at her aunt, who kept her eyes intensely locked onto the cream carpets on the floor. Her expression was hard to decipher. Was it sorrow on her face, or embarrassment?

"So you see, Neji." Matsuo's voice rose slightly in excitement.

"Together, we can overthrow the clan leaders. We can create a new clan; one which is free; one where all Hyugas are equal."

There was a long and awkward silence as Matsuo watched to see Neji's reaction; while the young man, on the other hand, remained as emotionless as always.

"So," Matsuo beamed. "Are you with me?"

Neji shifted his position and he, too, crossed his arms.

"One question." The prodigy said.

"How are you going to convince the other Hyugas to join you?" Matsuo chuckled in satisfaction.

"That won't be a problem, Neji. Once they know you and I are on the same side, no one would dare…"

"I know a better option." Neji smirked. "How about using the dirty money you've earned to bribe them?

Matsuo froze in the midst of drinking his tea. The color from his face was drained, and the previously satisfied smile he had wore on his face was immediately wiped off. He straightened his back and lifted his chin up slightly.

"I don't know what Hiashi has told you, but…"

"Don't try to act innocent." Neji shot back at him. "I have proof." He reached into his top and extracted a piece of paper.

"Does this look familiar to you?" He asked, holding out a stack of photographs in front of his uncle's face. Each of them was of Matsuo, walking, talking, laughing; doing business with enemies of Konoha.

"I… what…" Matsuo stammered. Neji turned to Hiromi.

"Missions, huh? Is that what he's been telling you? This bastard has been doing _this_" he threw the photographs onto the coffee table and they slid out, spreading themselves out clearly. Hiromi stared at the photographs, but remained silent.

"And Tenten…" Neji growled. He could feel himself heating up, his body vibrating slightly involuntarily. He gathered chakra into one single hand, and the chakra was so concentrated, it began to glow.

"I'm going to kill you…"

"NO!" Hiromi, who had remained relatively calm throughout the whole conversation, had suddenly thrown herself in between her nephew and her husband.

'"Please, Neji!" Hiromi begged. From upstairs, Hayao had felt the commotion and started to cry. His wails travelled throughout the house.

"Don't do this! He's your uncle, my husband… He's Hayo's father for goodness sake! Please don't do this!" It pained Neji to see his aunt in such a state. Almost immediately, the glow in his hand faded away, and Neji lowered his arm. There was a frozen moment; the only noises which could be heard were Hayao's bailing and Hiromi's silent sobs. Neji sighed and turned to leave.

"This is your loss, not mine." Matsuo said calmly as Neji walked out of the sitting room. He stopped and gave his uncle one last glare, and continued his way. As he turned for the front door, he walked into Yuki, who seemed to have been eavesdropping by the door. She blushed violently as Neji frowned down at her.

As he made his way back to the main courts, Neji shook his head in amazement at just how good of a manipulator Hyuga Matsuo was. He really was a clever man, like Hiashi had warned him. He recalled back to the day he had overheard Matsuo and Hiashi's conversation, and he had burst in to punch his uncle in the eye when he had called a certain woman a certain name.

_**Note: Please refer to chapter 7 if you don't know what I'm talking about.**_

_**Flashback**_

"_Hinata… marry… explain…" He breathed. Hiashi blinked at his brother-in-law lying on the floor, then at his nephew, then at the door Neji had literally torn down._

_"Before I tell you anything Neji, I think we should find a place to put him," Hiashi glanced at the man sprawled across the floor,_

_"…and somewhere a bit more private… er… a room with a door at least." He now glanced at the gaping hole where the door had been standing._

_"Sorry" Neji apologized. "Reflex." Hiashi managed to give him a chuckle before ordering two guards to take Matsuo away._

_"Follow me." He then said, turning to Neji. Neji followed his uncle along corridor after corridor, finally, stopping at large room with an impressive looking wooden door. Hiashi entered it, and motioned for Neji to follow. He realized he was in his uncle's bedroom._

_"Neji, tell me, what is the 142__nd__ rule of the Hyuuga Clan's manuscript." Hiashi started.__ Neji closed his eyes and sighed; he knew this day would be coming sooner or later._

_"I'm sorry I broke that rule." He said. Hiashi shook his head. _

_"I'm afraid sometime, 'sorry' just isn't good enough." Hiashi replied, massaging his temple. "Neji, you know you're like a son to me. I would never do anything to hurt you, but sometimes, you've just got to learn to protect yourself! You're a stubborn child, there's no doubt about that; but _at least_ you weren't stupid! Now… what were you thinking, giving away your eye, just like that, without thinking of the consequences! It's not like you to act on an impulse!"_

_"She was dying. I couldn't just let her die." Neji replied._

_There was a pause between them. Finally, Hiashi spoke._

_"Neji, this isn't something even I can control right now. I can let you off, but that doesn't mean others won't take this as a chance to get what they want."_

_"What do you mean?" Neji asked, confused. Hiashi sighed tiredly in his chair, he was going through many things in his mind._

_"Let me show you something." Hiashi suddenly stood up and quickly did a hand seal. A puff of smoke erupted between them and when it had faded, Hiashi held a file in his hand. He handed it over to the prodigy who opened it curiously and scanned the contents. They were photographs. He widened his eyes and looked up at his uncle. Each photograph showed Matsuo friendly with a missing nin or the government of an enemy country of Konoha. Hiashi nodded gravely._

_"I started getting suspicious when I noticed Matsuo's grand spending. I started wondering where he had gotten the money from. So I sent people to spy on him, and got this." He gestured towards the stack of photographs in his nephew's hands._

_"Something happened to Mtauso's brother when they were young, which caused him to hate the main family. He's been trying to overthrow us ever since." Neji could only stare at the photographs in front of him. _

_"You see, Neji this is his perfect chance" Neji froze. He could not believe that he, Hyuga Neji, had made a horrible and careless mistake. No, it was not a mistake; protecting Tenten was never a mistake. He was mad at the fact that he had not thought of this; that he had no plan. He had always been a schemer, someone who calculated exactly what was coming next. He hated being blind. _

_"That's the reason why I want you to marry Tenten, Neji." Hiashi continued. "But Matsuo walked in on me filling out your marriage application form. I had to lie to him; I couldn't let him know about you and Tenten yet. That's why everyone thinks you're marrying Hinata." Neji clenched his fists. Why did everything have to happen at once?_

_"I want to talk to Matsuo" He told his uncle. _

_"Yes, perhaps you should. But be careful, Matsuo is a clever man; he will tell you what you want to hear."_

xxxxxxxxxxx

"I have news." The Tsunade said to each of the ninjas in front of her.

It had been a day since Neji had returned from his mission. After the 'visit' he had given his uncle, he had returned to his house for a quick shower and sleep; since he had not had any ever since he left for his mission. He seemed to be very tired and had fallen into a deep slumber; for the next thing he knew, he was awoken by a maid and it was 'next morning' already. The maid told him, while intently looking at the wooden floor and blushing a very dark shade of red due to his revealing torso, that the Tsunade had asked for him to be in her office in an hour.

When he arrived, Sakura, Lee and Shino were already at the Tsunade's office. Neji later found out that they had all volunteered straight away for the Orochimaru mission. Not long after Neji arrived, the Tsunade walked into the room as well, looking each of them over.

"Late again." She grumbled.

As if answering her call, Shikamaru knocked and strolled in casually at that point and yawned. He received a glare from the Hokage, and he returned it with an I'm-not-bothered hooded look. As Tsunade started talking, he stuffed his hands into his pocket and lolled his head towards one side of his shoulder.

"I have received some information from a very reliable source telling me that Orochimaru will be meeting Arisa at the Ouran Bridge 2 days from now at exactly 12 o' clock."

"Who is Arisa?" Lee asked. Neji had forgotten that Shikamaru and he were the only people who knew who Arisa was, as they had heard from 'T' during their mission.

"One of Orochimaru's favorites, apparently." Shikamaru yawned. Tsunade nodded.

"It is not clear why they are meeting, but it is believed to only be a small update on recent events." The Hokage started fumbling around her desk.

"Your mission will be to assassinate Orochimaru on the spot and return. I have arranged for Temari to meet up with you guys halfway. Ouran Bridge is near Suna, and it would be better if someone who is familiar with the geography is around." At this, Neji saw Shikamaru shift uncomfortably at his spot and blush a tiny tint of pink.

"I have asked the Kazekage to send us blueprints of the entire Suna and its surrounding villages. You should receive it in an hour or so." She turned to look at Shikamaru and Neji.

"Please make a plan, brief your fellow teammates, and send a copy of it to Temari. You will leave tonight. Understood?"

"Hai" They replied.

xxxxxxxxxx

Shikamaru and Neji sat inside a room with a single tiny window in the corner in the Hokage's tower. The rest of the team had gone home to get ready for tonight, leaving Shikamaru and Neji to scheme their flawless plan.

Right now, they were waiting for the blueprints to arrive. They sat in absolute silence. Neji didn't mind, and he was sure the trouble-phobic man next to him liked it as well. Therefore, he was surprised when he started speaking first.

"Seen Tenten lately?" he asked casually, both his legs rested on the table and hands behind his head.

"No." He replied.

"Tch." Shikamaru sniggered. "I thought you'd be seeing her everyday."

"It's not that easy when you have a certain medic nin watching your every move." Neji remarked.

"Ah. Aoki Ai, isn't that her name?" Shikamaru nodded. "Apparently nobody in the hospital likes her' Sakura wants to kill her."

"You can say that again"

"Well today is your lucky day, my man. I heard Ino say she's left." Neji stood up, violently knocking down his chair.

"Gone?" He asked.

"Yea." The shadow user yawned, ignoring the fact that Neji had just practically thrown his chair out the window.

"Forever?"

"No, just for a few days. She needs to go back to Suna for some supplies, apparently."

That was good enough for Neji.

Distant hurried footsteps could be heard. Somebody was running towards their room.

**Sorry for the long wait. Next chapter will be up very soon. I can promise you that.**

**xholicx**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Shikamaru perked up slightly, but still remained in his lazed posture. Neji activated his Byakugan and scanned the corridors. He saw Kasumi Sano sprinting towards their room. No wonder the both of them hadn't felt anything.

"We've got mail." Neji said. Shikamaru made no reaction, only opening one eye to watch as the door of the room burst open. Kasumi panted as she wiped sweat off her brow with the back of one hand and held a thick package with elaborate markings in the other. Neji cocked his head to one side and studied the markings. It was a seal which protected the package from being opened by anyone except for those who had the authority.

"N… Neji" Kasumi acknowledged. "I came here as fast as I could. This is from Sunagakure" She handed the package to Neji, who in turn, slid it over to Shikamaru.

"This is your specialty, Shikamaru, break the seal." He smirked. Shikamaru grunted in reply and studied the markings.

"Tsk, she just had to use the most complicated one." He mumbled.

Neji and Kasumi watched as Shikamaru took a deep breath, and then performed a series of hand-signs. His movement was swift, but it took him a good 2 minutes before he was able to break the seal. A puff of smoke burst from the package, and the markings disappeared. Shikamaru stretched and yawned.

"Well, let's get to work, shall we?" he said idly. Neji nodded and started spreading the blueprints and maps on the large table in front of them.

"Um…Neji?" Neji turned around. He had almost forgotten Kasumi was still standing there.

"Yes" He raised an eyebrow.

"Are you guys going on a mission?" she asked, frowning slightly.

"Hn"

"Um, ok then. I'll leave you two to it. Oh, and good luck." She waved as she made her way to the door and closed it with a tiny click. The boys continued to stare at the door for a few more seconds.

"Who was that?" Shikamaru finally asked. Neji turned to him and caught a slight flush on his face.

"You too?" Neji asked, amused.

"What… What!? No, of course not, don't be troublesome, Neji." He turned back to the maps. Neji chuckled quietly.

"Her name is Kasumi Sano. She's an orphan. I train her sometimes."

"Oh. I don't seem to have noticed her around much."

"She left Konoha for quite a while after her parents died. She only came back recently.

"Oh."

"Why do you ask? Do you like her?"

"Hell no! Don't be stupid!"

"Good, because I want you to finish this mission before Temari kills you."

"Fuck off, Neji!"

xxxxxxxxxx

Tenten slowly opened her eyes, waking from her dreamless sleep. This was strange, _very_ strange indeed. She felt normal. She felt comfortable. She felt herself, something she hadn't felt in what seemed to be ages. She rolled her head on her pillow and glanced out at the sky. It was dark, and stars were scattered across it. She turned back to her room. She seemed to be alone in it. That was strange as well; not that she didn't appreciate it. The people who had been forcing their conciseness into hers for the past month were nowhere to be seen. That was when she remembered. The tiny, dark haired medic nin had threatened her:

_"I'm leaving for a few days, but that doesn't mean I don't know what you're doing. If you as much as hint to that boyfriend of yours what's going on…" Tenten knew she was referring to her white eyed former teammate._

_"What will you do? Kill me?" Tenten shot back._

_"Oh, no, better." The medic nin smirked._

_"I'll make _you_ kill _him_."_

"You wouldn't be able to kill him, even if you wanted to!" she had wanted to say.

But she knew she couldn't risk it.

She sighed, relieved she would at least have a few days without the headaches and the horrible memories she had been forced to relive over and over again. She thought of all the things that had happened so quickly, which had led to these dreadful, year-like days.

_**Flashback**_

_Tenten stretched and sighed peacefully as she walked in the mass of trees as her other two teammates strolled along beside her._

_"I can't wait to get home." She chirped. They had just finished a mission, and were on their way back to Konoha. It had been successfully accomplished, and all three of them were in good moods. One of Tenten's teammates, Kaita, turned and smiled at her. _

_"I can't wait either." He said. Tenten giggled._

_"That is so sweet!" She slapped him on the back. "I bet your fiancée misses you as much as you miss her." _

_He blushed at her comment._

_"When is your wedding?" She asked._

_"Next month." He answered sheepishly._

_"Am I invited?"_

_"O…of course, Tenten chan! I thought you didn't need to ask to know that!" He said, surprised she had asked such an obvious question._

_"Oooh, I can't wait!" Tenten exclaimed. "It's about time I got to wear a dress and look pretty. It's been absolutely ages since I've had an excuse to dress up!"_

_"Yes, that Hyuga boy would certainly have a nosebleed if he sees you looking so beautiful." Tenten's other teammate, Dai joined the conversation. Dai was an older, more mature man with stubble and the beginnings of wrinkles adorning his face. He was a husband; and a father of a newborn baby boy._

_"Shut up, Dai." Tenten blushed. The two men laughed at their youngest team member._

"_Well, well, well, if it isn't some cute little Konoha ninjas." A deadly familiar voice came from above them in the trees. The three of them whipped their heads upwards simultaneously. A man with a heavily distorted face and long flowing hair was looking down at them. He licked his lips._

_"Orochimaru…" Dai whispered dangerously and Tenten's heart skipped a beat._

_Indeed, it was Orochimaru. Next to him, stood two hooded figures, their faces hidden in the shadows of their cloaks. Tenten couldn't tell who they were, but she could tell they were female from their slender and curvaceous bodies._

_"This could be fun." Orochimaru laughed. "Shall we kill them?" He asked the girl to his right, who was, compared to the other, shorter and smaller._

_"Let's." She sniggered._

_The next few minutes happened as a blur for Tenten. Her mind went numb as all she could see and feel was blood, sweat, and tears. Swords and kunais were whipped across the air. A giant snake fell from nowhere and tore at Kaita with no mercy. She frantically sent weapons in all directions. A finger came at her face and she suddenly felt an immense pain from her eye. She reached her hand up to touch it. She sobbed in horror as she realized that… _it was gone.

"_Tenten, pull yourself together! She screamed at herself. "She looked around with her remaining eye and saw _it_. She grabbed it. _

"_That's right, Tenten, Sakura will know how to fix this." She assured herself._

_She knew there was no way she could win these people. Tenten felt herself rushing over to a bloody Dai and lifting him up with all her power. How she managed to carry a man twice as heavy as she was; she didn't know, and she didn't care. All she could remember was running. Running, running, and more running. Her muscles ached and burned, screaming at her to stop, but somehow, her brain managed to deaden that feeling as well. She ran for what seemed like forever. Then, she heard voices. She was tired. The sun was blazing onto her. She walked into someone. _

_She heard Naruto's voice. _

_She heard Neji's voice. _

_Then everything went black._

_There it was. It was the voice again. His voice. Orochimaru's voice._

_"What a surprise, my pet." It said. Tenten looked around in the blackness. She flung her hands around. Where was he?_

_"Stop it!" She screamed at him. He laughed._

_"I'll find you!' She screamed again._

"_No use." Orochimaru taunted. _

"_I'm inside your head."_

_The next thing she knew. She had woken up. Her left eye still hurt, but she could see again. It seemed someone had fixed it. But somehow, it didn't feel quite right…_

_The nurse standing beside her dropped her files and gasped when she saw the kunoichi stir. She rushed out of the hospital room. A few minutes later, Tsunade burst in with Sakura at her heels._

_"I'm home!" Tenten thought to herself in delight. She tried to smile, but somehow, she couldn't._

_"Tenten, do you know where you are?" Sakura asked her._

_"Yes, of course! I'm in the hospital!" She _wanted _to say. But somehow, she _couldn't_. She wasn't in control of her own body. She couldn't open her mouth to speak. All she could manage was to stare at Sakura._

_"Tenten, are you alright?" Sakura looked worried._

_"Wh...Where am I? Who are you?" Tenten heard herself ask._

_Why was she asking such a question when she knew exactly where she was?_

_She felt like she was no longer herself. Like somebody had taken control over her. Tenten couldn't figure out what was going on with her. The people in the room looked at one another. They left her room and she could see them talking outside with hushed voices. _

_Then, Gai sensei came. Then Lee came. One by one, her friends came, but she couldn't acknowledge them. Then Neji came._

_"Tenten, you're awake!" He said to her. He grabbed her hand, and she could feel herself melt. He had never held her before._

_"How do you feel, are you in pain?" He asked. She wanted to tell him she was fine, that seeing him was everything that she had wanted or needed. But she couldn't. Instead, she felt herself pull away from him and ask him a question which made her heart break._

"_Who are you?" _

_Tenten knew something had happened between her and Orochimaru when he had taken her eye out. He had somehow managed to get inside her head, and not just that, he was controlling her every move. Tenten wanted to scream. She wanted to kill Orochimaru._

_"Get out of my head!" She yelled mentally._

_"Not until a bit of fun!" Tenten mentally froze. This was a new voice. This was a girl's voice; it was the voice of the small hooded figure that had been standing next to Orochimaru._

_"Don't you dare tell anyone what's happening, or else…" The voice inside her head warned._

_"Oh yeah?" She replied. And what if I do?_

_"You don't want to know."_

_Tenten was not going to be threatened by this. She was a kunoichi! She had to be strong. Her next chance came that afternoon. Neji was there. Tsunade sama was there, and Sakura was there. She tried to tell them as she pushed the voices away from her head. But all she heard was:_

_"I warned you, bitch!" And a horrible pain knocked at her head. She screamed and shouted as a medic nin pierced a needle into her arm and she blackened out._

_When Tenten woke up, she still had a light cramp in her head, but at least it was bearable. She tried to move, but something heavy was resting near her feet. She looked up and saw Neji, sleeping peacefully near her. She reached out to touch him, but the voice in her head came back._

_"Boyfriend?" It asked. It was the girl again._

_"That's none of your business." She shot back._

_"I don't think you should be touching him." It said. Involuntarily, the arm she had reached out which was so close to Neji's hair shot back towards herself, and she lied back down onto her bed. Neji stirred and awoke._

_"You're awake." She heard herself say._

_When Sakura brought in her dinner, Tenten decided to try again. Only to be met by the same piercing aches in her head._

_"You're making this hard for yourself!" The voice said, as Tenten twitched and scream, trying to get the pain out of her body. She managed to take control over herself for a brief moment, and she grabbed at Neji._

_"Orochimaru!" She managed to scream at him, before the pain was so unbearable, she fainted._

_Tenten first came face to face with the mysterious girl inside her head a few days later. She had not expected it at all. She had walked in, smiling as if nothing was wrong, with Gaara, Temari, Naruto, Neji, and all the rest of the people. She was introduced as 'the medic nin from Suna.' Tenten had found her strangely familiar, and when she spoke, she knew. She tried to tell them, she even pointed right at her, but nobody understood what this seemingly insane girl was trying to tell them. When she was left alone with her in the room, she finally understood why Orochimaru and 'his gang' were doing this._

"_Where is Uchiha Sasuke?" She would ask her over and over again, every single day. She would answer them with the truth – she didn't know. But they wouldn't believe her._

_She later learned that this girl; the mysterious person inside her head, the 'Medic nin from Suna' was Aoki Ai._

Tenten sighed. When was this going to end?

Suddenly, she felt a familiar chakra flow; _his_ chakra flow. She rummaged through her mind what she could do.

_"I can't let him know!" _She thoughtto herself_._

Just as he came in through the window, Tenten quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.

She heard Neji walk in; she felt his body heat, so close to her as he leaned down and carefully pushed stray strands of hair away from her face. She could hear and feel his breathing against her face. She almost wanted to just wake up and tell him everything was alright.

"_I'll make _you_ kill _him_."_

No, she couldn't risk it. So instead, she remained as still as she could, as Neji brushed her face with his rough and gentle fingers.

"I'll save you from this, Tenten." He whispered, before planting a soft kiss onto her forehead. And with a swift rustle of his robes, he was gone.

She opened her eyes, and a tear rolled down her cheek and onto the pillow.

"I know you will, Neji." She smiled.

It was a promise

xxxxxxxxxx

Neji jumped from roof to roof towards the Hyuga complex. He had just finished making out their mission's plan. It had taken them a good few hours. The plan had to be flawless, because the enemy practically was. He was now going back to quickly get some basic necessities for the mission; he was due to be in the Hokage tower in half an hour. As he travelled, he noticed the Konoha hospital. He remembered Aoki Ai wasn't there, so he swiftly changed his route and made his way towards Tenten's room. As he got closer, he thought he felt Tenten's chakra flow; something he hadn't felt in a very long time. He quickened his pace and jumped in through her window. She was asleep, and he decided feeling her chakra flow was just his imagination. He stared at her; her features softened by the moonlight. He couldn't help but reach out and touch her.

Watching her made him even more determined.

"I'll save you from this, Tenten." He whispered, planting a kiss on her forehead. He tore himself away from her and left the hospital.

Neji quickly packed his belongings, keeping his bags as light as possible. As he left for the main gates, he remembered something. He had to tell _someone_.

xxxxxxxxxx

The team arrived in the Hokage's office at precisely the same time, each jumping through a different window.

"Very punctual." Tsunade complimented.

"Yosh, punctuality is key factor to youthfulness!" said a certain thick browed boy. He was ignored.

Shikamaru briefed them on their mission, and with a worried 'good luck' from the Hokage, the team made their way to leave the office. Sakura had been fidgeting with her fingers all through the briefing, something the Tsunade, Neji, and even Shikamaru had noticed, but hadn't said anything about. She lagged behind as the last of her team members had left the room.

"Umm, Tsunade sama?" She said quietly.

"What is it, Sakura?" She replied.

"Um… have you seen Sasuke around lately?" The Hokage sighed and leaned back on her chair. She took a swig from her jug of sake.

"I haven't." She replied honestly. "In fact, I haven't seen him for quite a while. I've been looking for him as well. I thought it would be a good idea for him to go on this mission, seeing he knows so much about Orochimaru. But I couldn't find him. I assumed he had left." Sakura froze.

"Left… as in left Konoha?" She stuttered.

"That's right."

"Oh." Sakura looked disappointed. She bit her lip and turned to leave the room.

"Sakura." The Hokage said sternly.

"Y…yes?"

"Pull yourself together."

"H… Huh?"

"That's right, that's what I said." The Hokage replied. "This is a very important mission. You should know better than to let a man like that get in the way of your concentration. You're a kunoichi now, a real one. Not a love deprived teenage girl anymore."

"I… I'm sorry, Tsunade sama."

"This is a very important mission for the Hyuga boy. Don't screw it up." Sakura took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She knew what the Hokage meant, and she knew she couldn't let Sasuke control her anymore. When she opened her eyes again, the determined sparkle was back, and the Hokage smiled.

"That's my girl." She took another swig of sake as she watched her pink haired student leave the room.

**If you guys haven't already realized, Tenten's flashback is based on the first few chapters, except it's in Tenten's POV instead of Neji's. Hope it's not too confusing! You can go back and read chapter 1-5 if you've forgotten everything already. )**

**Cheers,**

**xholicx**

**PS – THANK YOU GUYS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS! MUAH XXXOOO**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Thump.

Hinata whipped her head towards her bedroom door.

"Who is it?" She shouted, adrenaline rushing about her body in an instant.

No answer.

She frowned, and activated her Byakugan, something only the Main family could do in the Hyuga courts. She saw nothing in particular; just a maid walking towards her room and… was that a kunai stuck onto her door? Quickly, she scrambled over to study the piece of metal which had abruptly landed onto her bedroom door. From the angle it had dug itself into the wood; she could tell it had been thrown by someone high above, likely from the roof or in the midst of a leap. She also noticed that the kunai was not the only thing stuck onto her door; in fact, the kunai was merely there to pin up a piece of paper. She carefully wrapped her finger around the cool metal and tugged the kunai out of her door. Studying it, she recognized it almost immediately.

It was Neji's kunai; a gift from Tenten on his 18th birthday. She had personally created this kunai, starting from the pointed blade to the very last detailed scale of the dragon which twisted itself around the handle. Hinata remembered watching the weapon mistress working day and night, carving the piece of metal into perfection, just in time for the prodigy's birthday. The Hyuuga boy never used it; not because he found it useless, but because he found it too precious; although he didn't like to admit to that.

Hinata turned her attention to the piece of paper in her other hand. She realized Neji's writing, but was confused by the message he gave her.

On the smooth parchment, Neji had drawn two symbols and written 6 numbers.

The first symbol was simply an arrow pointing downwards.

That was it.

Underneath that, were the numbers:

_8, 12, 3, 142, 199, 200_

Below all of this, was the last symbol. It was a strangely familiar image to Hinata. It was the image of a vortex, a line which curled itself inwards into a circle, getting smaller and smaller as it reached the center.

She frowned. What in the world was Neji trying to tell her? She stopped a maid walking past.

"Excuse me." She said, reaching out to tap the maid on the shoulder. The maid lowered her head so that she was staring at the floor, apparently embarrassed by her politeness.

"Do you know where Neji is?" Hinata asked, ignoring the fact that the maid was avoiding her gaze.

"Neji sama left for a mission not long ago." The maid replied, keeping her head down.

"Oh… Ok then, thank you."

The maid bowed so low, Hinata wouldn't be surprised if she had managed to graze the tip of her nose onto her knees. She turned back into her room, keeping her eyes on the piece of paper. Perhaps Neji had hidden something on the floor, thus the arrow pointing downwards?

Hinata walked back to where the paper had been pinned and circled the floor near it. She got onto her knees and knocked on each piece of wood. They all sounded the same; solid. A few more maids had apparently walked by, as they gasped, seeing their mistress crawling around on the floor.

"Hinata sama! Is there something wrong? Have we missed something while cleaning the…"

"Oh, no, no!" Hinata exclaimed, quickly standing up, as she flushed a little herself. "I was er… nevermind. I'm alright." She assured them. The maids glanced at one another.

"If you need anything, Hinata sama…"

"I… I'm fine." She repeated. The maids bowed again and left her; glancing back worriedly as if she were abnormal. Hinata straightened herself. Ok, so maybe Neji hadn't left anything hidden underneath the floorboards then.

Knock knock.

This time, the noise was coming from _inside_ of Hinata's room. What could it be now? She rushed back into her room and heard the knocking again. It was coming from her window. She opened the curtains, and what she saw almost made her faint.

"N… Naruto kun?" She breathed, flabbergasted at the blonde's sudden appearance.

"You shouldn't be sneaking in like this! If father sees you…" Hinata whispered, as she opened to let a very wet Naruto in.

"That's why I have to sneak in!" Naruto replied, jumping off the windowsill. He walked to the middle of her room and shook his head like a dog, water droplets flying in all directions. Hinata giggled.

"Naruto kun, what have you done to yourself? It's not even raining!" She exclaimed.

"Ah, Hinata chan, I've been training by the waterfall!" He said proudly.

"Sh!" The Hyuga smirked, warning the blonde to keep his voice down. He gave her a foxy grin, and she blushed. Although she had managed to get over her stuttering around him, he was still her weakness.

"I… I'll go check if Neji has some dry clothes you can borrow." She said, leaving the suddenly feverish room to the cool outdoors.

When Hinata returned, she saw Naruto standing there, topless. She almost dropped the clothes in her hand as she felt another wave of heat rising to her face.

"I hope you don't mind, Hinata! But these clothes are starting to smell funny." He laughed, not realizing what he was doing.

"That's f…fine." Hinata mumbled, trying not to stare at his toned body.

Suddenly, something caught her eye, and Hinata forgot everything; even the fact that her crush was currently standing half naked in front of her. She rushed over to the blonde boy, knelt down, and put her hands onto his abdomen, studying intently the symbol drawn onto his skin,

This time, it was Naruto's turn to turn pink.

"H… Hinata!? What the…"

"Naruto!" Hinata exclaimed. "What is this?" Naruto followed her gaze towards his own body.

"Oh, that?" He scratched his head. "It's a cursed seal. Apparently, the Yondaime left it on me when he sealed the nine-tailed fox into me. I've had it for as long as I can remember." He answered.

"Why? What's wrong?"

Hinata stood up and motioned for Naruto to come nearer. He walked over to her; she showed him the mysterious note Neji had left her.

"Look at this, Naruto kun." She said. "Neji left this on my door just before he left for a mission. I have no idea what he wants to tell me." Naruto frowned and scratched his head.

"Eh?" He half laughed to himself. "That looks awfully like the seal on my body."

"Maybe it's something about you." She suggested. "Do these numbers remind you of anything?" Naruto frowned at the piece of paper.

"Ah, could it be… 8 inches?" he breathed.

"What?" Hinata asked.

"Well, it's pointing down…and, but 200!? That's a bit... no it can't be…"

"Naruto kun, what on earth are you talking about?"

"I think Neji is trying to suggest his penis is bigger than mine." Naruto retorted, pouting.

"Naruto kun!" Hinata squealed, blushing a furious shade of crimson. "I...I don't think… Neji wouldn't use this kunai just to…"

"Huh? Oh, yea, you're right." He agreed, noticing the significant weapon.

"Then no, I've got no idea."

Hinata sighed and flopped herself onto her bed.

"I wonder what he's trying to tell me…" she whispered.

"That's so like that bastard." Naruto replied, picking the clothes Hinata had brought and putting them on.

"Wouldn't it be much easier just _writing_ it?"

"I think Neji has a reason for putting it in a code."

They remained in a comfortable silence for a while, until Naruto finished putting his clothes on.

"Hey, do you want to go for some ramen?" he exclaimed. "I'm really hungry."

Hinata bit her lip. Maybe going out for a while would help clear her head.

"Sure."

xxxxxxxxxx

"I never knew about this part of town!" Naruto said happily, as he and Hinata walked out of a restaurant.

"Me neither." Hinata smiled. "We'll have to come here again."

"You bet!" He cried. "But er… Hinata?" he motioned for her to come closer.

"Please don't tell Teuchi I've eaten somewhere else other than Ichiraku."

"I won't." she promised.

Naruto nodded in satisfaction.

"Now which way to take you home…" he muttered, looking from left to right.

"That sign says the main street is straight ahead, so…" Hinata stopped midsentence.

"Ah, you're right." Naruto agreed, "Shall we?" he offered her his arm, but was surprised to see she was not listening. An odd, startled look was plastered onto her face.

"H…Hinata?" Naruto asked, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Naruto. I think we've misunderstood Neji's note." She whispered.

"So…no penises…"

"No, Naruto! It's not _down_, it's _straight across_!"

"What do you mean?"

"Naruto, look at that sign. What does it say?"

Naruto studied it for a few seconds, and then suddenly, his face fell in realization.

"Oh." He said. Hinata nodded."

The sign was made of smooth wood, with the words "Main Street" and an arrow pointing downwards carved upon it, indicating the main street was 'straight ahead.' Neji's note had not mean 'downwards', but 'straight across'.

"So, Hinata, what is across from your room?" Naruto asked.

"The Hyuuga Library.

xxxxxxxxxx

Temari was leaning against a large tree when they arrived.

"Neji." She acknowledged, as the team slowed down to a stop. He nodded back in greeting. Neji scanned his radius for eavesdroppers, while Shikamaru wasted no time and began informing her with the plans.

"This is a simple drawing of Ouran Bridge and its surroundings." He began, illustrating into the dry dirt. He drew 6 'x' marks onto the drawing.

"Basically, we will arrive 10 minutes before the designated time, and each of us will hide ourselves in each of these positions" he pointed at the x marks.

"Temari, you will be here, behind this bush. You will be the first to take action. When Neji signals you, you will confuse them with your Dust Wind. Because we don't know who Arisa is and what she can do, Neji and I will stand back and analyze while you attack long distance. We will compromise from there. Neji and Lee will mainly be in charge of Orochimaru because of their sensitivity in speed. The rest of us will be on Arisa."

Temari nodded once, and Shikamaru quickly wiped away all traces of his drawings.

"Shall we go?" Kiba asked.

"Let's." Temari replied.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Hinata, I never knew you guys had a library." Naruto said in the darkness. "This place is pitch black, where's the light?"

"We never really come in here; it's full of ancient Hyuuga scrolls and stuff. There's not light in here, its and old building. We'll need a candle. I think… yeah, here." She shoved a long wax candle into Naruto's hands and lit it with a match she seemed to summon out of thin air.

"Hold on to it, and don't drop it." She warned.

"What about you?" he asked.

"I don't need a candle. I have my Byakugan." She smiled. "Anyhow…" she took out the crumpled piece of note and studied it.

"8, 12, 3… I think I understand. Come here."

Hinata led Naruto through a maze of long wooden shelves which stretched themselves from floor to ceiling. They were all filled with thick, dusty volumes, and every corner and turn they took looked about the same to him.

"Here." Hinata breathed, stopping at a particularly large shelf standing alone in a clearing. "This is shelf number 8."

"Now… 12th row… 3rd book." She murmured as Naruto watched her from behind. She climbed a ladder and ran her fingers across the 12th row, stopping at a particularly large and thick, white, tattered book. She pulled it out and for a moment, she still looked confused. Suddenly, Hinata gasped, and the colour drained from her face.

"Hinata, don't scare me like this. What's wrong? What book is that?"

Hinata shoved the book back into its place, and descended the ladder. She seemed dizzy, and grabbed onto Naruto for support.

"Hinata! What book was that?" Naruto exclaimed, worry thick in his voice.

"Th…that was the Hyuuga Clan Manuscript, Naruto." She whispered.

"Yeah…ok…whatever that is…" he gripped onto her arm to steady her.

"It's… I think I…Tenten… but I don't understand… _Who_?"

"Hinata, please just tell me what's going on." Naruto grumbled. Hinata took a shaky breath,

"I…I'm sorry, Naruto kun." She apologized. "You see, the Hyuuga Clan Manuscript is a book of rules all Hyuuga Clan members must obey. It was written a long time ago, by the Hyuuga elders."

"Whoa!" Naruto exclaimed. "That book is massive though! How many rules are in there?"

"Two hundred."

"TWO HUNDREmphffftt…"

"Shhh!!" Hinata clapped a hand onto his mouth.

"Phorry…" Naruto apologized. Hinata removed her hand.

"So…Neji wants you to read the book, or what?" Hinata gave the note to Naruto again.

"I don't need to read it." She grimaced. "I've learnt the whole book off by heart."

"WHAT! I mean, what!" he whispered when he received a look from Hinata.

"That… that book is fucking huge though…"

"Every Hyuuga has to when they reach the age of 5." She shrugged. "Anyways, that's not the point. I think Neji wants to point out those three rules out to me." She pointed at the last 3 numbers on the note.

"142, 199, and 200…?" Naruto scratched his head. "Well, what are they?"

xxxxxxxxxx

_The Hyuuga Clan Manuscript_

_Rule 144: "__A Hyuuga shall never give his Byakugan to someone who does not belong to the clan__. __If a Hyuuga shall violate this rule, the result is the death of him and the given.__"_

_Rule 199: "__If the leader of the Hyuuga clan happens to die because of violation of any of these rules, his or her family is also banned from the position as well. The next candidate in line shall take their place.__"_

_Rule 200: __If any Hyuuga shall violate any of the rules stated in this book, he or she must be executed, despite his age, sex, status, or position. It is also a great crime to help, encourage, or support any Hyuuga which is planning on or has violated any of these rules, and execution shall be expected from anyone who does so_

xxxxxxxxxx

**- indicates offspring of the above**

**+ indicates spouse of**

_The Hyuuga Main Family:_

Hyuuga Hiashi

- Hyuuga Hinata

- Hyuuga Hanabi

_The Hyuuga Branch Family According To Rank:_

Hyuuga Hizashi (deceased)

- Hyuuga Neji

Hyuuga Hiromi + Hyuuga Matsuo

- Hyuuga Hayao


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

It was like a game of connect the dots. One realization led to another, until finally, the lines formed a picture; and everything became clear.

"If Neji gave Tenten part of his eye…" Naruto whispered.

"He's broken rule 142…" Hinata finished off.

The two sat staring at one another, eyes wide and glistening.

"Y…you said "_the death of him and the given_"…you didn't mean…" Naruto stopped as he saw Hinata nod slowly.

"But…but this can't…Neji was _only_ trying to save a life! There's got to be some way to escape this or…"

"There is, Naruto kun!" Hinata whispered urgently. "Can't you see? The rule says "_anyone outside of the clan_." If Tenten becomes part of the clan…"

"So…you adopt her?"

"No, Naruto kun! Marry her! Neji needs to marry her! When Tenten becomes Neji's wife, she will become part of the clan!"

"But I thought _you_ were supposed to marry Neji!"

Hinata shook her head furiously.

"Neji marrying me is just a cover up so nobody becomes suspicious. Somebody must have found out Neji was getting married, and father used me as a cover…" Hinata shook her head in awe.

"No wonder Neji was so confused that morning…" she whispered.

"So, if your father was trying to help Neji…" Naruto interrupted. "Then technically, he's broken rule 200. "_It is also a great crime to help, encourage, or support any Hyuuga which is planning on or has violated any of these rules, and execution shall be expected from anyone who does so_""

Hinata grimaced.

"Which leads us to rule 199..." she said. Naruto ran over the rule inside his head. "_If the leader of the Hyuuga clan happens to die because of violation of any of these rules, his or her family is also banned from the position as well. The next candidate in line shall take their place._"

"Naruto," Hinata said, grabbing him by the arm. "This sign right here." She pointed at the vortex symbol on the note. "It must mean you. Why? Has Neji told you anything recently, anything at all?"

"I…I don't know." Naruto scratched his head. "The last conversation we had was…on a mission…he said something about this uncle who…" Naruto widened his eyes.

"What, what is it, Naruto kun?" Hinata shook his arm.

"He told us about this uncle who wanted to kill your father."

"Somebody wants to kill father?" Hinata gasped, her bottom lip beginning to quiver.

"Wh…who…?"

"It was Maruo…Matuo…"

"Matsuo…" Hinata whispered, almost too quietly to hear. "I should've known."

They both sat there in silence, watching as the flickering candle cast moving shadows against the bookshelves.

"Hinata?" Naruto said quietly after a moment.

"Hm?"

"I…I'm almost afraid to ask." He said. "But rule 199 says "_The next candidate shall take his place_"…"

There was another long silence.

"Who exactly, is "_The next candidate_"?"

Hinata sighed.

"Well, originally, I am the next candidate." She said; nervousness creeping back into her voice. "But in this case, since our whole family is banned from the position, the next person would be my father's twin brother; Neji's father."

"But he's dead…" Naruto trailed off.

"Exactly. And since Neji is the original…._criminal_." she said the word with mild disgust. "He can't take the place either."

"Well…who's next?"

"My father has a sister…Hyuuga Hiromi." She explained.

"And…?" Naruto asked, biting his lip.

"She's Matsuo's wife."

xxxxxxxxxx

Neji knelt behind a mess of branches high in a tree and waited without moving a muscle. From about 10 feet away, he could see Lee hiding behind a large rock; eyes flying backwards and forwards between his watch and the spot where Orochimaru was to be expected.

20 seconds, and Orochimaru would be here.

Neji felt his heart gain pace.

10 seconds.

His palms began to sweat.

5 seconds.

He had to suppress his chakra from making him tremble.

4…3…2…1

It was reflex that had saved him. In one sudden motion, seconds before the mass landed at exactly the spot he had been crouching, he leapt onto a higher branch. If it were not for his Byakugan, he was sure he would not have reacted in time. He heard screams in his microphone; the rest of his team had been attacked as well. He looked down to see what it was, and saw a huge, white snake with beady, blood red eyes snapping up at him. It dodged the first kunai he sent, but after a few more pieces of metals, one went strait into its mouth and sent the beast collapsing; slamming its great body against the branch and snapping it. Neji watched it fall onto the ground with a satisfying splat before he grabbed for his earpiece.

"Talk to me." He shouted at the rest.

"What the hell just happened?" Lee shouted back.

Snakes…

Orochimaru knew they would be here.

"Kiba? Shikamaru?" He shouted.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I smelt that thing before it landed on me. It's all good." Kiba replied. There was no answer from the other.

"I'll go check on Shikamaru." Temari suddenly piped in.

"Sakura?"

Silence.

"Yosh! Leave her to me!" Lee shouted.

Neji scanned the area with his Byakugan, but apart from the rest of his team, there was no other suspicious presence. How did the snakes arrive without him knowing? And most importantly, where was Orochimaru, and how did he know about their plan – _in such precise detail? _The snakes, it seemed, had all landed at the exact spots the team members had decided to hide. These spots had been carefully planned far back before the mission had even started. He and Shikamaru had made sure these were the spots least detectable in the area.

It chilled Neji to know somehow, Orochimaru was watching them from afar. This place was no longer safe.

"How are they?" he spoke into his mouthpiece.

"Not so well." Temari sounded worried.

"I second that." Lee's voice crackled.

Neji clicked his tongue.

"We'll take them to the river 5 miles north-east and see how they are."

"Neji," Temari interrupted. "There's no time to hesitate. Shikamaru looks _awful_. I think we should take them to the hospital straight away."

"And the closest one is where?" he asked.

"In Suna, two hours away."

Neji frowned harder. He did not want to give up on the mission now. That would mean it had failed.

"Neji…" Temari pushed.

He sighed.

"Lead the way." He said to her quietly.

xxxxxxxxxx

It was the same unsettling feeling all over again as Neji sat and watched the Suna medic nins rush themselves around the hospital. The rest of his team sat solemnly on his either side. Temari had her forehead in her palms.

"What happened?" she finally whispered. It was the first time he saw her so shaky ever since their attack.

It seemed to be the question the rest of the team had been wanting to ask as well; as soon as the words left Temari's lips, Lee and Kiba both whipped their heads towards him for an answer. He felt his fists clench at the reminder of his failed mission again.

"I don't know." He whispered.

Lee laid a hand on his shoulder.

"It's not your fault." He said quietly. "We all know this is the most important to you."

"No." Neji replied. "It _is_ my fault. My fault for being careless."

"What do you mean?" Kiba asked.

"I must've been careless. Someone must have seen our mission layout and plans…"

"But who?" Temari lifted her head. "Who else knows of our plan?"

"I… nobody!" Neji said again. "Only the 6 of us. Even the Hokage wasn't shown the plans."

Temari turned to stare at the front.

"Well somebody has betrayed us." She whispered.

"You stupid woman! Are you trying to say one of us is a traitor?" Kiba shot at her.

"Well since you're the first to have such a huge reaction, yeah, maybe!" she exclaimed.

"Are you trying to say… you know what? _You're_ the only person here _not_ from Konoha! Maybe you're the traitor?"

"How dare you accuse me!" the blond woman shouted.

"Why not? A small village like Suna would need the powers of Orochimaru to be strong, wouldn't they?"

"We may be small, but we're not fucking hypocrites!"

"Yeah, that's what they all…"

"Why on earth would I want to hurt Shikamaru?" Temari had suddenly stood up, and tears were streaming down her face. That was when the men realized she was crying.

"Kiba!" Neji said sharply. "You may never speak to the ambassador of Suna in such a way! Apologize at once!"

"Y…you want me to…" Kiba tried to argue.

"Look, we're all just stressed and worried about our teammates, that's all." Lee stood up between the two. "Let's just… let's just forget this, alright?"

Temari gave Kiba a deadening glare and plopped back into her seat, sniffling as she did. Kiba followed but let out low, quiet growls every once in a while.

xxxxxxxxxx

Neji found himself in a dark space. He had no idea where he was, or what was around him; only blackness. Somehow, his Byakugan refused to activate. Blindly, he flung his arms around him, searching for anything to tell him where he was.

"Neji." Sounded from behind him.

He flung himself around, but still could not see anything.

And suddenly, in angry confusion, a mass of black birds came flying directly at him. They hit him, and he suddenly found himself lost in a crazy mess of feathers, beaks, claws, and the fluttering of wings and the cawing of crows. He flung his arms hopelessly around, trying to swat the animals away from him. A laugh sounded from his side.

The birds left him and went to fly behind the source of the voice.

And that was when he saw. It could not be mistaken – the jet black hair, the crackly voice, the pale white skin…

"Orochimaru!" he shouted.

Said man laughed.

"Yes Neji." His voice scraped. "You're angry at me, aren't you?"

He flung himself directly at him, but somehow, his hands went right through Orochimaru's body.

"Tsk tsk." He warned. "You won't be able to do that. This is a dream."

He was mocking him.

"Come out here!" Neji shouted. "Come out here and fight me!"

Orochimaru threw his head back to laugh again.

"I'm not here to fight you, Hyuuga Neji." He bellowed.

"Then what do you want with me?"

"I've come to make you a deal."

"A deal?" the mass fluttering of wings behind him made it hard for Neji to hear clearly.

"What do you mean a deal?"

Orochimaru smiled.

"You want many things from me, Neji." He soothed in his crackly voice. "You know what they are?"

He made no reply.

"That poison in your friends' bodies is spreading." He whispered. "The antidote is something only I can make."

"I'm sure its nothing the Suna medic nins can't figure out."

"Oh, but even if they _could_…" he drawled on. "The poison contains my blood, and only with my blood, can it be removed from the bloodstream."

Neji narrowed his eyes.

"Speaking of which." Orochimaru added. "This Tenten of yours sure is a sturdy girl."

Neji's fire went up with a roar at the mention.

"Tenten!" he screamed. "What have you done to her!?" he tried to lunge at him again, but the attempt was useless. Orochimaru just laughed.

"I can give you your Tenten back." He smiled. "If only you could do _one little thing_ for me…."

Neji breathed.

"Never…"

"All I want is Sasuke."

"We don't know where he is…"

"I know he's in your village." Orochimaru walked closer to him, and he could smell a strange sort of scent emanating from him.

"All you need to do is get me Sasuke." He licked his lips. "And the antidote; Tenten; I will give everything back to you…"

Neji felt his arms shake as he clenched his fists harder.

"It's up to you." Orochimaru said one last time. And in another mess of wind and feathers, he disappeared.

Neji opened his eyes and shot up to a sitting position. His eyes were wide, and he was panting slightly. Beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. He looked around him and found himself in a twisted mess of bed sheets.

A dream… it had all been a dream.

Sighing, Neji lifted the sheets to smooth them out again, and a dark object fell out onto the floor next to him. He picked it up and studied it, and realized, with a jolt of fear running through him, that it was a black feather.

Attached to the feather, was a small note, written with black ink in tiny letters.

"_You have 9 days._" It said.

**A/N: You may (or may not) be happy to know that I have written the final two chapters of this story. Anything between now and then should be within one or two chapters... i hope. so don't be suprised if the last chapters are up quite soon after another.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Despite protests from the remaining members of the team (mainly Temari), it was decided that all members of Konoha; injured or not, would return to the village immediately, by the order of the Fifth Hokage herself. The reason she gave was that it was much easier and less time consuming to make one, big trip; rather than having intelligence and specialists travelling to and from the lands, which, she thought, would make the whole situation a lot more complicated than it already was.

They all knew she was right.

Neji had told nobody of his dream, and he was desperate to confide in somebody. Therefore, when told they were to leave the very next morning, he was partly relieved. Konoha had spread the message for any of the village's ninjas who were on missions nearby or returning and would be passing Suna, to help the journey.

A total of 12 showed up.

One of them was a large, extremely tanned, muscular kunoichi by the name of Maruko. She was twice the height of Neji and probably twice as wide too. She spoke in a loud booming voice, with a thick accent which Neji could not quite define. Kiba winced every time she opened her mouth to speak, and Akamaru drew the line at disappearing every time she walked into the room. However, she was extremely helpful. Maruko could easily carry Lee in her arms and run at the same time.

The rest, however, had to resort to being carried by two men at a time. The remaining people carried supplies; and a team of 6 had been formed to encircle the group and act as protectors and guards.

By now, Sakura and Shikamaru had turned sickly pale, almost vampire like. Their skin was cold and clammy, while their lips had turned a shade of dark, purple-red. Sakura became fully unconscious early in the morning before they were due to depart, and Shikamaru also fell soon after.

"Promise me you'll save him." Temari whispered to Neji as he prepared to take his first step away from Suna. He gave her a sturdy nod, and the journey began.

***

Meanwhile, under the dark, moonlit grounds of the Hyuuga complex, two shadowy figures swept past the bushes and quietly crept behind a tree. They looked towards a house. It was midnight now, and the house was dark and quiet – only a single window on the second floor remained bright. Slowly, she activated her Byakugan and looked in.

Matsuo was working at his desk. Inside the house, his wife and child were asleep, and a young servant girl was writing in a diary in her bedroom.

Hinata signaled to Naruto, and the two crept up under the window. Silently, they counted to each other in a secret, soundless code.

And then they attacked.

It was swift, silent, and near perfection, but Matsuo must have heard them before they reached him, as he suddenly shot up from his chair and turned to face the window. However, by then, it was too late. Naruto lunged; carefully whipped a flat palm sideways into the crook of his neck, and Matsuo gave a muffled cry before he fell. Hinata caught him.

Somewhere in the other room, a baby began to cry.

***

Neji had had a lot of time to think during his silent journey back to Konoha. As he sat outside the Hokage's office, he went through his thoughts. By the time he was summoned in, he had made up his mind.

The room was warm as the summer air blew in from the windows.

The Hokage closed her eyes as she listened to his story. When he finished, she opened them again, and stared intently into his eyes.

"And what do you propose to do?" She asked quietly.

"There is nothing else I _can_ do." He said. "Except…"

She closed her eyes again as he continued.

"I want to know where he is."

The Hokage was silent; her breathing steady. There were dark circles under her eyes. However strong the youth-enhancing jutsu she had used on herself was, it seemed it had worn off slightly over the past few days. He realized how the fifth was now paler, jaded, and he had some good ideas to the reasons behind.

For a moment, Neji almost thought she had fallen asleep, until she suddenly opened her eyes again.

"To be honest with you, Neji" she sighed. "I have no idea where he is."

"You mean to tell me he isn't in the village anymore?" he asked testily.

"I mean to tell you I have no idea." She repeated. "The last time I saw him, he was in the forest west of training ground number 7. I told this to Sakura, and now I tell you the same." She looked away.

They were silent again, for a very long time.

"I must find him." He whispered.

The Tsunade gave him a hard look.

"Neji," she started. "It's about time…"

"I won't give up." He said sternly. "Thank you for your time, ma'm. I will see you soon."

***

"Neji!" Hinata's muffled voice came from the other side of the door, and he suddenly remembered – he had more pressing problems.

He sighed. After the conversation with Tsunade, he had returned soundlessly to his room. He was sure nobody, not even a maid had seen him. How Hinata found out he was back, he had no idea. She was the last person he wanted to confront at the moment, which was one of the main reasons why he had decided to return unnoticed. He knew she cared a lot about that Naruto boy, who, in turn, cared a lot for the person he was about to pursue, to an extent he almost felt guilty with what he had decided to do.

"Come in," he said, tossing away the towel he had used in the shower.

The door almost slammed open, as Hinata staggered in, with the blond boy close behind her. Both of them breathless, flushed, but somehow, seemingly pleased.

"What have you guys been up to?" he ordered, persuading himself that the first thing that had popped into his mind was definitely _not_ what they had been doing.

"We kidnapped Matsuo!" she squealed.

***

Tenten knew, even before she entered the room, that Ai was angry.

"Back?" Tenten asked nonchalantly.

"Karasu just told me something very interesting." She sneered.

Tenten had no idea who Karasu was. She knew _of_ her, Ai always spoke of her, as if she were her partner in crime, but physically, Tenten had never seen her. Apparently, she was in charge of obtaining information. She realized that people under Orochimaru liked to work under aliases. Although Ai's real name was Aoki Ai, she consistently referred to herself to "Arisa", and refused to accept to be known as otherwise whenever they were alone in the room, and this also seemed to be what she was known as in her Orochimaru community. Tenten guessed that "Karasu" must also be some sort of alias as well.

"What did she tell you?"

"Stupid dumb bitch…" Ai replied. Tenten had no idea whether she was referring to herself or her partner.

"Always crying, always sobbing. I keep telling her to stop being such a…"

Ai stopped and turned back to Tenten.

"I was going to meet master, that's why I left. Your people must've found out, because they decided that going on an assassination mission would be a good idea. What fools!" she shrieked out a laugh.

"W..what?" Tenten choked.

"Karasu easily realized what they were planning. She informed our master immediately."

"What's happened?"

"Hn… I guess she is good for something." Ai continued, ignoring Tenten's questions. "Two of your friends are now at the brink of their death. If your little boyfriend doesn't bring us Sasuke soon, it'll be too late." Ai gave her a chilling smile.

"What do you say, eh?"

"No…" Tenten whispered. "Who is? What have you done to them?"

Ai gave another laugh.

"You know, beautiful," she whispered, running a finger across her chin.

"You can easily put your boyfriend out of his misery and guilt if only…"

"I _TOLD_ you! We don't know where Uchiha fucking Sasuke is! Why don't you guys listen?"

Ai moved away from the bed immediately, and Tenten felt a sharp pain in her head.

"Shut up." Ai ordered, and Tenten realized she could not speak.

"Somebody is coming."

Indeed, a few seconds later, there was a quiet knock on the door.

"Come in!" Ai chirped in her sweet voice. The door crept open, and a beautiful girl with long, flowing dark brown hair stepped in. Tenten recognized her; she was Kasumi Sano, the girl whom Neji trained and worked with. Her parents had died years ago, like her, and Tenten always felt a sort of sympathy, even a connection with her. Tenten had lost her parents when she was born – she did not have to suffer the pain of loss of love, but Kasumi had to.

Ai clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"I told you not to come to the hospital!" she said.

"I…I'm sorry." Kasumi stuttered, glancing over at Tenten.

She did not understand. Why was Kasumi here, and how did she know Ai?

Ai rolled her eyes.

"Well, what is it?" she asked, annoyed.

"I think Neji has decided to find Sasuke."

A faint grin hinted at Ai's lips.

"He should've done that a long time ago, shouldn't he?"

"Yes, but _Arisa_!" she exclaimed. "Do you think he'll be able to do in time? Sakura and Shikamaru are close…"

Arisa? Kasumi was calling Ai "Arisa", the alias she used in her Orochimaru community?

Suddenly, a sharp realization hit Tenten painfully in the chest. Could it be…

"Why would you give a shit about them!?" Ai whispered dangerously. "You do remember where your loyalties lie, don't you, _Karasu_?"

That was all the confirmation Tenten needed.

***

There was a sort of stunned silence in the room as Neji braced himself, prepared for what might be coming; a punch, a slap, a kick…maybe even something life threatening. He knew he deserved it, and he would have done the same.

But nothing came, and he watched as Naruto stared intently at the ground, any sort of previous excitement had disappeared.

"H…how could you!?" Hinata whispered hoarsly.

"After what Naruto has done for you… he helped me help _you_, Neji!"

Neji remained silent.

"This is how you repay him, by proclaiming to kill his best friend?" Hinata stepped up to face Neji.

"Sasuke is all he's got left in the world, Neji! How COULD YOU!"

By now, Hinata was screaming, as hot tears began to roll down her face. Neji had to admit he was stunned. The words stung him, but it was Hinata's reaction which triggered most of his guilt. He had never, ever seen her so raw and passionate with emotion before.

"I should never have helped you, Neji!"

"…Hinata."

Both Hyuugas turned to look at the boy who had spoken. He put a hand on her shoulder, without looking up from the ground.

"Neji is right." He said quietly. "If it weren't for Sasuke, none of this would be happening."

"But Naruto kun…"

"Tenten would not have been attacked and lying in bed…" he said, ignoring Hinata's interruption. "Matsuo would not have had the chance to plan a rebellion; Sakura and Shikamaru would not be in the hospital dying…"

There was a long silence between the three people. Only the sound of Hinata's sobs rang through the room.

"Thank you." Neji finally said. "You are a good man, Naruto."

***

**A/N: ABOUT TIME YOU UPDATED, EH, XHOLICX?**


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